Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has warned the new front wings to be introduced in 2019 are nothing more than a costly “shot in the dark”.
In an effort to improve overtaking, the designs are wider and simpler with the intricacy we see on today’s cars, however, according to the Milton Keynes outfit’s tests in the windtunnel the impact will be negligible.
“Our simulations show that nothing changes. Overtaking is just as difficult. The whole exercise just costs us money,” Marko said. “We can’t do a shot in the dark like this again.”
The Austrian also believes the wider wingspan, akin to 2009, could result in many more being damaged in wheel-to-wheel racing and wanted a return to narrower designs for 2021.
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Another area of interest has been the performance with some teams reportedly struggling to match this year’s level of downforce with the simpler concept.
According to Auto Motor und Sport‘s Tobias Gruener, however, others have already recouped the losses.
“F1 teams already reached 2018 downforce levels in 2019 CFD simulations – despite new front wing regulations,” he tweeted. “Red Bull stating additional costs of 15m Euro, suspecting it will have zero effect on overtaking.”
