Stricter front wing tests ‘essentially a regulation change’ - Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes the stricter front wing tests that will be introduced at the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix amount to “essentially a regulation change.”

The FIA announced at the end of January that it would reduce how much a front wing was allowed to flex under a static load, but delayed the enforcement of the new tests until Barcelona to allow teams to have time to react. Horner says the amount of time between the announcement and the implementation will have meant teams might have negated the raw performance impact, but he’s certain it will still make a noticeable difference on each car.

“I think we’ve improved [the car’s ride],” Horner said. “I don’t think we’ve cured it, but I think we’ve improved it –  it wasn’t bouncing at all like we had last year. Of course you go from seven days ago, we’re in Imola and at a higher-speed circuit and the car performed very well.

“We’re now heading back to some higher-speed circuits and of course the front wing [tests] is essentially a regulation change. Now, maybe that will have zero impact on the running order but it’s a change and it’ll affect all the teams; maybe neutrally, but there will be an impact from it.

“It’s a significant change, and so of course there’ll be some effect. The teams have anticipated that, so it may well be neutral or it may have some effect on degradation – it doesn’t make life easier.”

With Max Verstappen finishing fourth in Monaco, Horner says Red Bull knew it wasn’t likely to be overly competitive around the tight street circuit but is hopeful the higher speeds in Spain will suit his team.

“We always knew [Monaco] would expose some of our car’s [limitations] – it was never going to be our strongest circuit," he said. "So going back to Barcelona I hope that we can replicate closer to what we did in Imola. We arrive there 25 points [back] – we only gave away three points to the championship leader, so we’re still within a race win with, what, 16 races still to go?

“There’s an enormous amount of racing, plus the Sprint races, etc., so there’s a long, long way to go in this championship.”