Former Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner believes༺ complaints about McLaren’s flexible front wing only backfired following their 1-2 finish at the Spanish Grand Prix.

For Barcelona, the FIA’s long-awaited stricter F1 front wing tests were introduced.

Ahead of the 2025 F1 season, F1’s governing body announced that mor🐻e stringent testing would be conducted following concerns about the flexibility of teams’ front wings.

Red Bull, in particular, were hopeful that the clampdown🎐 on flexi-wings would impact McLaren’s strong start to th༒e year.

However, after qualifyin♎g, it appeared t♑hat the changes had zero impact on McLaren’s level of competitiveness.

McLaren locked out the front row and converted it into th🤡eir third 1-2 finish of the year.

The order at the front of the field re𒐪mained relatively stab♓le.

McLaren maintained their advantage over Red Bull, wꦕith Mercedes and ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚFerrari close behind.

The flexi-wing clampdown did result in criticism from 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton, who branded it as a waste of money.

Speaking on the The Red Flags podcast, Steiner batted away൲ Hamilton’s comments while slamming McLaren’s rivals for giving them an advantage.

“This flexi wing, it’s the same for everyone. I think Lewis came out with the comment that all this money w𝔍as wasted on d💎oing this and stuff like this. There was no money wasted,” Steiner said.

“Everybody went in to develop this one, because you hav💜e to make sure that your wing is not flexing. I read somewhere that McLaren, they just put an additional bracket on the wing so it doesn’t bend this much anymore.

“So it was a very cheap fix to get rid of this flexi wing, and part of it was the complaining of the other teams. The🦄y coꦗmplained, but what did they gain? Nothing. They gave the McLaren more advantage.”

Steiner praises McLaren’s understanding

Since introducing a sign🍒ificant upgrade at the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix, McLaren haven’t looked back.

That upgrade package transformed their car from midfield stru💜gglers to regular podium contenders.

In 2024, they secღured their first constructors’ title in 25 years, beating Ferrari by just 14 points.

They’re now on course 💙for another constructors’ crown in 20ꦗ25.

McLare💎n are already nearly 200 points ahead of Ferrari in s🃏econd.

Steiner has praised McLaren for how they’ve dealt with the flexi-wing🅷 changes.

“McLaren knows exactly wha🔯t they need to do wit🦩h the car,” Steiner added.

“If they lose the flexi wing or the effect the flexi wing gives them, they go to the wind tunnel and try⛄ to replicate what they had to get the same balance on the car again, you know.

“And m❀aybe you cannot get 100% ༒there, but you get 99.8% there.”