F1’s latest tech row shows what’s at stake as title fight rages

Ahead of Austin’s US Grand Prix, F1’s latest tech drama emerged after what has been a busy season for F1’s poachers and the FIA’s gamekeepers alike.

First, there was the classic F1 saga over flexing front wings, with aero-elasticity key to making this — and arguably any — generation of cars sing, a domain apparently mastered by McLaren and Mercedes in particular.

Flexing wings have always been a difficult area to police due to the difference between static tests and the reality of carbon fibre bending under load. But having already issued technical directives in the past to better advise teams on how the rules would be applied, the FIA was comfortable with what the teams were doing, and did not feel the need to impose stricter flex tests to police F1 designers’ favourite grey area.

Next, McLaren became the talk of the paddock once more in Baku with its innovative low-downforce rear wing, which created a mini-DRS effect that boosted its straight-line speeds. The design again passed the FIA’s existing tests, but this innovation was edging towards the darkest of grey areas. After conversations with the FIA, McLaren agreed to tweak its design for the next race it will use the wing — which is set to be at the Las Vegas GP.

The fact that the FIA let the front wing saga go, but that McLaren did end up altering its rear wing, shows the complexity of the matter for the governing body’s gamekeepers, and how each of the 10 teams are forced to operate in more shades of gray than a bestselling novel.

Now, it is Red Bull Racing that has been flagged by rival teams over the manner in which it has installed its race height-altering device to change the front bib.

What is the ‘front bib’?

All teams use such a system in some form, but teams suspect Red Bull’s — legal — cockpit-based solution could have been used overnight when the car is under parc ferme conditions, which is expressly forbidden.

Red Bull claims the device “is inaccessible once the car is fully assembled and ready to run”, and it has to be stressed that the team does not have to modify its car in Austin, but McLaren’s Oscar Piastri felt the parc ferme nature of the solution was “out of the gray area and into a black area.”

It will be almost impossible to prove that Red Bull ever used the device in parc ferme, so even as the FIA works on stricter procedures, it is a saga that won’t have a satisfactory conclusion for those who won’t give Red Bull the benefit of the doubt.

And if you are a rival team, why would you?

You may remember that Red Bull was also mentioned when the FIA reinforced its rule outlawing asymmetric braking, but is important not to throw everything onto one pile. The FIA explained that rule tweak was designed to make the 2026 regulations more robust, after which the new phrasing was retroactively added to this year’s rulebook — still with no indication of any team breaking the rules.

Why all the grey areas, and why now?

But it doesn’t seem coincidental that the 2024 season has been marked by so many tech dramas.

The regulations are in their third of four seasons, with teams finding it ever harder to add performance through traditional means. Any marginal gains can make a substantial difference to the end result now, which invites out of the box thinking.

Additionally, a closing up of the grid has led to a gripping on-track battle between Red Bull and McLaren, which has also spilled out off the track with Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and McLaren CEO Zak Brown trading the occasional barbs, whether it was about these technical dramas or over high-profile staff leaving Red Bull for pastures new.

“It’s all part of the sport,” Brown told Motorsport.com earlier this year. “You’re trying to win every battle in Formula 1 on and off the track. You’re looking over every single mirror and every single wing.

“I’m going to do everything I can that’s appropriate to help McLaren win. And I would expect the other nine teams to do the same. And that means we’re going to be at odds with each other from time to time.”

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko added: “One time some teams will accuse others, and then the ones that are behind are blaming the others and say that they don’t have it. This is a normal game as long as I am in Formula 1 and it has always been like this.”

Now that is at least one thing McLaren and Red Bull can agree on.