The FIA shares details of track limits along with DRS zones, circuit changes and more of Spanish GP, as F1 drivers speak on flexi-wing change.
The track limits as per FIA Race Directors’ note is white lines as known, but he has put in an additional note around Turn 1, Turn 2, Turn 3 and Turn 14, where the stress on re-joining – failing to do so will likely result in lap deletion and a driver may incur a penalty too.
Here’s what it said –
- In accordance with the provisions of Article 33.3, the white lines define the track edges. During Qualifying and the Race, each time a driver fails to negotiate with the track limits, this will result in that lap time being invalidated by the Stewards. Additionally, each time a driver fails to respect track limits at the exit of turn 14, will result in that lap time and the immediately following lap time being invalidated by the Stewards. 16.2
- Any driver exceeding track limits on the LHS at Turn 1 or Turn 2 may only rejoin the track at Turn 3 using the provided rejoin route, shown in the image below. For the avoidance of doubt cars using the rejoin route must pass to the LHS of the two bollards (image below), rejoining the track at Turn 3 safely and without gaining any lasting advantage.
In terms of the DRS zones, the first detection zone is 86m before Turn 9, whose activation is 40m after Turn 9. At the same time, the second detection zone is safety car line 1 and activation is 162m after Turn 14. Looking at the FIA stewards panel, it will be Nish Shetty at the lead again.
He will get support from Matthew Selley, Vitantonio Liuzzi and David Domingo. There is host of changes to the circuit too but largely realignment and paint work of the blue line behind the white line. Here’s the list of it as per the FIA note:
- The guardrail on the RHS approaching Turn 1 was replaced by a concrete wall with debris fences.
- Turn 2 exit: realigned the white line.
- Turn 5 exit: realigned the white line and paint a blue line behind the white line.
- Turn 9 exit: realigned the white line and paint a blue line behind the white line.
- Turn 10 exit: realigned the white line and paint a blue line behind the white line.
- Turn 12 exit: realigned the white line and paint a blue line behind the white line.
- Turn 14: realigned the white line and paint a blue line behind the white line.
- New fences to protect the Marshals Posts.
FP1 drivers –
Victor Martins – Williams (in place of Alexander Albon)
Ryo Hirakawa – Haas (in place of Esteban Ocon)
In addition to the usual FIA Race Directors’ note, there is a larger change in terms of flexi-wings. The rule for the rear wing was already in place since the start of the year, but for the front wing, the F1 teams were given handful of weeks to rectify and Spanish GP will be the first race with the changes.
Here’s what F1 drivers said –
Carlos Sainz: “Yeah, there’s been obviously a lot of talk regarding this. I don’t think it’s going to affect teams and people as much as people think or as much as is being made about this change of regulation. It’s still a front wing and still will be, just obviously run a bit stiffer and it will not flex as much as it did. I wouldn’t expect more than one-tenth swing up or down through the field for each team depending on how much you were flexing or not. But I also think nowadays we have a lot of tools—mechanically and aerodynamically—to tune these cars.
“So even if it’s going to be more of a challenge, we still have three practice sessions to see where the car is at in FP1 and take steps to fine-tune it and get it back to a decent place. You can imagine teams also in the simulator have been running endless laps just with a new wing. Nowadays, F1 teams are too well prepared, ion that sense, to be caught out by this kind of change.”
Lando Norris: “Nope. Not at all. There are little tweaks here and there. But no, nothing that will change how we have to do anything.”
Lewis Hamilton: “Ultimately the flexi-wings are a Band-Aid for poorly-designed technical regulations, I would say. Getting the set-up…creating devices and mechanisms on the car mechanically, I think only engineers are able to do it. It’s still not that easy to get the load that you need on the front end in the low-speed or just rely solely on mechanical grip. So far everyone’s kind of managing, some people better than others. This weekend is going to be interesting because you’ve got less flex of the front wing, so you have a lot of front end in the high speed and less in low. It will be interesting to see how that affects different teams. Some teams probably are flexing more than others, and did a better job than others. I really have no idea on how it will affect.
“I don’t know why this [clampdown] came about, if I’m really honest. I’ve not really spent much time thinking about this. The flexi-wings, it was a positive when it came about, some teams were quick to adapt it, some teams were very slow to adapt it. It’s been a positive. I remember when I was at Mercedes and we got it last year around this time and it was a positive for us. Some people had it earlier, some people had it later. It made this generation of car much nicer to drive – so it’s going in the wrong direction, that’s for sure. But I guess it’s more about policing it, making sure it’s better-policed, I guess, moving forward. Hopefully it brings everyone closer.”
Max Verstappen: “It will change the balance of the car probably a little bit. For us, not too much. I don’t expect massive time gains or losses between the teams. I can say that with quite a lot of confidence because I think those wings, they never really gave us a massive performance gain. I don’t know if we got it wrong or didn’t extract the most out of it. But even for the other teams, I’m sure it’s all manageable. If you have a good car, you have a good car. OK, the front wing bends a bit less. But I think you can tune it around it.”
Oscar Piastri: “I think the biggest problem is going to be how overhyped it is, probably. We know what’s different. I think everyone will have to change, at least to an extent. I’ve not run the front wing, but Lando has already run the front wing before this year [in practice at Imola], so we’re confident that’s not our magic bullet. We don’t have a magic bullet, but that’s not our main strength.”
Charles Leclerc: “I don’t think anybody knows it is going to change. We know how much it will affect us, not a lot. We don’t know how much it will affect the others. I really don’t know, we have to wait and see how much is it going to change the pecking order. You have different ways to improve that and have the same at least feeling wise for the driver but then you end up compromising other things which is never what you want to do. Lets say there are going to be compromises to be found and maybe some drivers can drive with a bit more difficult balance and by that you’ll be able to gain something as a team but I think we are all in the same situation. I don’t think it is going to change as much as we think in terms of feeling, a little bit, but it is not going to be a big-big change.”
Alexander Albon: “The regulation change suits us but the track doesn’t. You will likely see us fall a bit backwards in general this weekend but not because of the flexi-wings. At the same time, I’m quite optimistic. We haven’t exploited the rules the same as the other teams, so it should benefit us in the longer term. “It is a good track for that to work, it is a sensitive track to that feeling. Like I said, I don’t know about the other teams, maybe the other teams have been on the simulator and have done before and after of the effects and seen the different balances they have got in the car. I don’t think you’ll see huge differences or swings of performance but for us it wasn’t that big.”
Gabriel Bortoleto: “I mean probably from the top teams, yes. From teams around us, I don’t know, I don’t expect it to be such a crazy thing, maybe a bit similar to everyone but maybe we will feel a bit less than other teams.”
Pierre Gasly: “I think it will have an effect but probably quite a lot less than what’s being talked about, obviously I might be wrong, we will see this weekend. From what I have seen so far, it mainly will change some behaviour and car characteristics, more like through balance and through corner balance rather than pure performance and load onto the car. I am sure some will be more affected than others but I expect talking hundreds rather than tenths of a second. But in a season like this year, hundreds can move you up the order by 2 or 3 positions, it is still going to have an effect but hopefully we can be on the better side of it.”
Here’s FIA Race Directors’ note: https://www.fia.com/system/files/decision-document/2025_spanish_grand_prix_-_race_directors_event_notes_.pdf
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