Some of the talk in F1 this week has been the front wing on Sebastian Vettel’s car and the incident with Jenson Button. We ran a YouTube video, prior to it being removed, of the wing flexing massively while behind Button’s car in the slip stream. James Allen picked up on the video as well and asked the same question we did; would that have contributed to Vettel’s crash which ruined Buttons race?
That talk was fueled by the FIA’s decision to increase the front wing test prior to the race at Spa. The Red Bull’s were nearly a second a lap clear of their competition in Hungary and many had attributed the pace to a flexible front wing and later a flexible floor on the chassis.
The immediate resurgence of McLaren at Spa was food for thought as many believe Red Bull attended the GP with a different front wing, several engineers from their aero division and some hushed whispers and moans. The issue wasn’t helped when McLaren’s Jenson Button eluded to the new found pace of his MP4-25 as really the lack of Red Bull’s flexi-wing. You can imagine that didn’t sit well at the Austrian team.
Red Bull team boss has denied the insinuation made by Button and leveled his own insinuation at McLaren and their flexi-wing now:
“I can categorically tell you that they are the same wings that ran in Hungary a month ago,” Horner said. “Whether that is the same for our competitors I can’t say but I would be very interested to know – and you might find it was a silver wing that was most flexible this weekend.”
It’s a bit surprising to be honest as I was marveling at the usually reserved McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh getting snippy by calling Red Bull’s Vettel “Crash Kid” and Ron Dennis referring to him as “impetuous”. Then Horner fires back with an accusation that McLaren now have the Flexi-wing and Red Bull never has one and they brought the same old wing they always use. I love it. The fun and Jedi Mind games of F1.
At this point we need Ferrari’s Stefano Domencali to chime in and call them both cheaters and haters. I jest of course…Stefano’s not that kind of guy right? That’s what I used to say about Horner and Whitmarsh.
