Wings & Things

You've got to feel sorry for Renault, who had the temerity to make noises about Ferrari's 'flexi' wings: so the FIA went and put Renault under scrutiny instead... D'OH! Then other teams 'revised' their wings after the FIA started tutting at them too.

The only people left apparently unscathed were the reds who said they never did anything wrong anyway and, following a friendly chat with the FIA, changed theirs as well. For 'performance' reasons. Ahem.

I have to say I love front and rear wings whether they flex or not: they're beautifully sculpted assemblies that have a huge role in defining the car's character, as well of course as the airflow over, around and behind it.

What I can't stand though is all those ridiculous extra mini-wings, winglets, wingettes, and sticky-out wing-style aero improvers... Whatever language you use they're ugly as hell and they're sprouting everywhere.

Winglets are only a very recent blot on the landscape too, much like mobile ringtones or McFly - look at a car from 2001 and it looks as smooth as a baby's bum by comparison.

Just as the very silly 'tower wings' of 1998 were quickly and effectively banned, there surely has to be some decent legislative way of outlawing these ridiculous devices. (And McFly ideally...)

Okay so they're deliberate aero elements, but there must be a way of reframing the regulations to allow designers more freedom of bodywork design at the outset, but preventing these dog-ugly devices from being bunged all over sidepods and chassis.

It's ridiculous - F1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport, but line the cars up and it looks like they've all been vandalised by some deranged squad of ninja panel-beaters...

Winglets are only really there, like flexi wings, to get around aero regulations. But rather than make rules that are subverted in such easy, effective and ugly ways, why not regulate around absolute standards and dimensions, then step back and leave the rest to designers?

What the sport needs, as ever, is sensible legislation where it's needed and a lack of interference the rest of the time; be it bodywork, engines or other components. What it gets, as ever, is the exact opposite.