A change to an FIA regulation takes effect when Formula One enters the ninth round of the season at the Spanish Grand Prix. The rule has been planned since before the current season began and will limit the permitted tolerance of front wing flexibility from 15mm to 10mm.
The motorsport governing body granted F1 teams an eight-round grace period in order to avoid wasting advancements made over the winter and to give them the necessary time to make adjustments, even though changes regarding the rear wings were implemented immediately for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and would be further refined in later rounds.
As a result, there has been a lot of conjecture leading up to the new rule being implemented starting this weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Woking team is known to have an advantage in tyre and brake cooling techniques, which are the focus of new FIA technical instructions. As the top team, McLaren has been particularly under scrutiny.
When the front wing rules are implemented, it is expected that the papaya team will lose some of its performance edge; nevertheless, team principal Andrea Stella has consistently downplayed such speculation. According to manager Fred Vasseur, other teams like Ferrari have hinted that it would be a “game changer.” However, it is still uncertain if the new regulations will have any real impact on pace or how much of an impact they will have on the hierarchy at the pointy end of Formula One.
However, it does add a sense of mystery to the weekend on whether any of the elite teams would suffer as a result.