The 2025 Spanish Grand Prix will see the introduction of new technical directives in regards to Flexi-Wings. The FIA has announced stricter testing and new parameters for the maximum flexing allowed when put under load. The team bosses have their say on these new regulations coming into effect during round 9 of the 2025 campaign.
McLaren: Andrea Stella
“I should have come more prepared after I created this story of apples, pears and peaches, because Monaco was a peach.
“I am very interested to see where Ferrari will be at a circuit like Barcelona, I think we have ahead of us some circuits, like Silverstone, which will be more of a category like Saudi Arabia or Imola, and expect Red Bull to be very strong.
“With low-speed stuff, I expect McLaren to be strong in Canada, and Barcelona is a bit in the middle, and considering how fast the Ferrari was in Turns 3,4, and 12, I think they will be fast in Barcelona.”
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Ferrari: Fred Vasseur
“Barcelona is on the calendar of every team with the new regulations for the front wings. We have been working on it for ages, and it can be a game-changer because we don’t know the impact on every single team of the new regulations. We will stick to it and be focused on having a better exploitation.”
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Red Bull: Christian Horner
“What we don’t know is how it will affect other areas of the car. It is a significant change, so there will be some effect, but of course, the teams have anticipated that, so it may well be neutral or maybe it will have some effect on degradation.”
“It certainly doesn’t make life easier.”
Mercedes: Toto Wolff
“What we have seen is that Ferrari was probably the most conservative of flexi-wings. What it is going to do to the pecking order is something I’m not sure it will change, but it is another angle of curiosity.”
Aston Martin: Andy Cowell
“We’ve made some front wing modifications, and we’ll go into Friday and learn and see. Then we might put our heads up and see what impact it’s had on others as well.”
Stake: Jonathan Wheatley
“I think we, as a sport, we’ve been talking around it for a long time. Last year, and certainly at the beginning of this year, some teams have been getting a really big advantage from it.
“All the teams are very, very clever. They’ll be trying to mitigate that loss of advantage as much as they can. It’s an aero circuit, isn’t it, Barcelona? I think we’ll know pretty soon after qualifying.”
Spanish GP Preparations
With these incoming changes, team bosses seem to be divided in their approach. McLaren and Mercedes think the grid won’t gain or lose much performance and are therefore more interested in keeping an eye on their direct competition in Ferrari and Red Bull.
However, Red Bull and Aston Martin will try their hardest to maintain their current performance with the changes made. Ferrari and Stake have been preparing for these changes since the season start and could be the ones to watch going into this race weekend.
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As always, the Formula 1 grid is divided on these issues but on one thing all of the team bosses can agree: We will only find out the effect of the new regulations after qualifying when everyone turns their cars up to 100%.