Lando Norris has rubbished claims that the FIA’s immediate clampdown on flexi rear wings will hurt McLaren, the driver adamant that McLaren’s wing is “fine”.

In fact, it is so far inside the permitted levels that he says the team hasn’t done enough to push the limits.

Were McLaren the target of the flexi wing clampdown?

Flexi wings were one of the hot topics in the build-up to the F1 2025 championship with the FIA issuing a revised technical directive to prevent teams from running not only flexible front wings but also rear wings.

The latter though, was only scheduled to be enforced at round nine, the Spanish Grand Prix, where more stringent tests would be introduced to limit the permitted level of flex reducing from 15mm to 10mm.

But on March 17, just 24 hours after the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, the FIA informed the teams of TD055A which changed the permitted levels of flexibility with immediate effect.

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The compliance checks pertain to Article 3.15.17 of the technical regulations, the area of rear wing mainplane tip flexibility where the permitted level of flexibility was 2mm.

For the Chinese Grand Prix, this section of the rear wing will have a permitted level of flexibility of 0.75mm when the usual static load tests are carried out.

Fingers were immediately pointed at McLaren, who last year ran the mini-DRS wing at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with Oscar Piastri’s rear wing notably flexing as he held off Charles Leclerc on the straights.

McLaren altered their rear wing after conversations with the FIA to the point that Norris is adamant that this year’s rear wing checks have absolutely nothing to do with McLaren.

“We don’t change anything, ours is fine,” the Australian GP race winner said in the build-up to the Chinese Grand Prix.

“In fact, ours is probably too good, and we are probably not pushing the limits enough, honestly.

“So no, already if this technical directive was applied for last weekend, we’d also be fine so it’s not directed at us – it seems it’s directed at other teams.

“Which probably means we need to push it a little bit more.”

The FIA confirmed that while all the teams passed the mandatory flexi tests in Australia, footage of the cars’ rear wings meant there were “sufficient grounds” for more stringent testing.

An FIA spokesperson told PlanetF1.com: “As has been previously communicated, between the end of the 2024 season and the start of the 2025 season, the FIA exercised the authority it is granted under Article 3.15.1 of the Technical Regulations to introduce either new or more challenging load-deflection tests for the front wing (from Race 9, Spanish Grand Prix), the upper rear wing, and the beam rear wing.

“In addition, the FIA requested the teams to use cameras in Free Practice Sessions to monitor the on-track deformations exhibited by the cars during the Australian Grand Prix.

“Having analysed footage from the rear wing deformations combined to the static deflections measured inside the FIA garage in Melbourne, the FIA has concluded that sufficient grounds exist for a tougher test to be introduced from the forthcoming Chinese Grand Prix on the upper rear wing.

“More specifically, Article 3.15.17, introduced in 2025, states that if 75Kg of vertical load is applied on either extremity of the rear wing mainplane, the distance between the mainplane and the flap (also known as “slot gap”) must not vary by more than 2mm.

“From the forthcoming Grand Prix in Shanghai, this limit will be reduced to 0.5mm. Due to the short notice for Shanghai only a tolerance of 0.25mm will be added to this new limit.

“The Teams were informed of this revised test early Monday 17th of March.

“The FIA wishes to further confirm that during the Melbourne event all cars tested against the requirements of Article 3.15.17 and found to comply, therefore all cars raced in Melbourne were deemed to be legal.”

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