Alpine were the first team to confirm they needed to work on their rear wing to ensure it complied with the FIA’s new, stricter Technical Directive around flexibility ahead of the Chinese GP.

While all rear wings were found to be in compliance in Australia, the FIA has introduced new, more stringent testing on rear wing flexibility, meaning the slot gap ‘must not vary’ by more than 0.5 millimetres – down from 2mm – when 75 kilogrammes of vertical load are applied.

Alpine the first to confirm ‘fairly normal’ rear wing changes following new TD

There is a 0.25mm tolerance in place at the Chinese Grand Prix that is set to be removed by the time Formula 1 returns in Japan, with the FIA looking to clamp down on excessive rear wing deformation at speed – or the so-called ‘mini-DRS’ effect when the rear wing slot gap is closed.

How the TD would affect those up and down the grid was unknown heading into the Chinese Grand Prix was unknown, with Lando Norris quipping McLaren’s rear wing is “probably too good” when confirming no changes needed to be made to it, hinting “it seems it’s directed at other teams.”

Now, Alpine have confirmed work had to take place at short notice to ensure their rear wing is compliant with the new rules, with a “very small” turnaround between the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix – while Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu also hinted at potential tweaks to that area of the car.

Alpine racing director Dave Greenwood told reporters in Shanghai, as quoted by The Race: “We’ve had to do some work back at the factory to make sure we were in the correct place here, but I think that’s fairly normal in these situations when a rule and an allowance of deflection changes.

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“You need to check that you are going to be able to comply with that as well.”

When asked about what sort of modifications were made to the rear wing of the A525, Greenwood replied: “I’m not going to go into that level of detail, honestly.

“But there’s work that needs to go on to make sure it’s compliant. That’s been done and we are there.

“You can imagine the timescales were very small. It’s not like you can do something revolutionary, but there are things we can do to make sure we comply.”

Komatsu said, as quoted by Autosport: “We may have to change a little bit how we set up the wing, but not the design or anything”.

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