Red Bull has had its fair share of expenditures this season and the budget cap hasn’t helped. The team has had a mangled car to fix, necessary engine upgrades, and then the controversy of the infamous Flexi-wing. Brought into the spotlight by Lewis Hamilton after the Spanish GP; the “bendy wing on the back of their car” had given Red Bull an advantage on the straights.

Red Bull’s CTO, Adrian Newey, looked back on the turbulent first half. He analyzed the controversy surrounding the Flexi-wing and expanded on it. While teams like Alfa Romeo and Ferrari were also using the technology, Newey states Mercedes only focused on the alleged benefit Red Bull gained.

“We certainly weren’t the only team to have that issue but of course, when Mercedes started making noise about it… they were only worried about whether we were getting a benefit, which we really weren’t.” The genesis of troubles began between the two teams this season. The Flexi-wings controversy caused a lot of trouble between the two team bosses.

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Newey also elucidated the impact of the protests on Red Bull’s pockets. ” There was a cost implication to changing that part which obviously hurt.” The new directive by the FIA caused many teams to stabilize their wings after the Azerbaijan GP, ahead of Paul Ricard.

What are Flexi-wings?

The technical regulations of the FIA state that components that affect the aerodynamics of the car must be “rigidly secured to the entirely sprung part of the car” and “remain immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car.” This means that besides DRS, the front and rear wings cannot move. To enforce this, the FIA puts the cars through a deflection test, which no team has failed to date.

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The Flexi-wings basically reduce drag, which increases the speed. This is beneficial in the faster sections of the circuit. The FIA discourages the use of such bendy parts as a safety regulation.

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Why was Red Bull scrutinized?

Christian Horner, who fought hard for keeping the part, did not welcome the mid-season design change. Making the wing more rigid also meant spending more under the cost cap.

Horner had argued that infinite rigidness was a delusion. ” To think that everybody’s aerodynamic surface was completely rigid would be a fallacy. On every single car on the grid, it’s just not the case. You can visibly see that.”

Red Bull also argued that the Mercedes car’s front wing moved, but nobody wanted to look into that. ” Look at some footage from Imola at the front of our competitor’s car and it will show you very clearly flexible aerodynamics which, as we know, the front wing is a far more sensitive part of the car than the rear of the car, so you pick on one part of the car and inevitably that is just going to move around.”

Regardless, Adrian Newey believes that the controversy only highlighted the resilience of the Milton Keynes team. “It is, however, a great testament to the depth of our team that we can respond to changes and is a great example of when our team is put in a corner we can come out fighting and continue to be just as competitive.”

The war between the Silver Arrows and the charging Bulls dominated the first half of the season. With the season’s resumption looming, undoubtedly the swords will be drawn again.