FIA to implement more stringent wing inspections
Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn indicated in Sepang that the FIA intends to stamp down on the practice of deliberately using a flexing structure as a performance advantage.
"The FIA may change the regulations, if they feel the wings are going in a direction they don't like," Brawn told ITV Sport in Malaysia on Friday.
"We may see some new tests from the FIA in the next few races." Honda's tech boss Geoff Willis agreed with Brawn that the rules needed to be clarified over the issue, which he explained was to do with deliberately manipulating the gap – known as the slot gap – between the first and second rear wing elements.
"I think we probably still need to see a change in the regulation there to see that that geometry has to remain constant all the way across the speed," he said in Friday's press conference.
"One way to do that is to make sure that the physical arrangement of what the rear wing is like is consistent with not being able to change that gap."
"The issue about the flexibility of rear wings is a difficult one because clearly all engineering structures do deflect.
"The question is whether you are allowed to make performance benefit from that, and the FIA – Charlie Whiting – has clarified on several occasions that you are not.
"The difficulty is what sort of test you come up with that is safe to perform in parc ferme conditions because the rear wings do have very significant loads on them that you probably wouldn't want to place on the car in parc ferme in case they fell off and hurt somebody."