‘That’s total rubbish’: Christian Horner hits back at Toto Wolff ‘flexi-floors’ claim
Mercedes boss Wolff claims some F1 teams are clearly breaching the current regulations surrounding ‘flexi-floors’ - yet Horner insists there are ‘no issues’ at Red Bull
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Your support makes all the difference.Christian Horner hit back at claims from Toto Wolff that some teams were breaching rules surrounding ‘flexi floors’, saying there are “no concerns” with the underside of the Red Bull cars.
The FIA issued a new technical directive in the last month to clamp down on what Wolff believes is a grey area in the rules, with the directive coming into force at the Belgian Grand Prix after the summer break.
Mercedes team principal and CEO Wolff believes some teams are breaching the current regulations by finding extra performance with a degree of ‘flex’ within the floor of the car, subsequently running them closer to the ground to improve the ground-effect aerodynamics which are a staple of the 2022 cars.
“Some teams have skids that actually disappear when the car hits the bottom [of the ground],” Wolff said, quoted by RacingNews365. “The reason for skids is they are the limitation of how much [wear of the board] you can have. If the skid can disappear miraculously into the floor, that’s clearly against the regulations. Then the second thing is there is a plank that can deflect, or that basically also moves away more than the tolerance should be.
“The tolerance is one millimetre and if a plank moves away many more millimetres up into the car, obviously you gain some performance there too. I think the first one [flexing floor] will disappear for Spa, the second will be clarified in next year’s regulations.”
Yet Red Bull boss Horner dismissed the claim that his team were using a ‘flexi-floor’ to improve performance, with a subtle dig at Mercedes’ position in the Championship by saying Wolff was “referring to the cars around him at the moment”. Mercedes are currently third in the Constructors’ Championship, 122 points behind Red Bull, ahead of this weekend’s French Grand Prix.
“That’s total rubbish,” insisted Horner. “Absolutely no issues or concerns on our floor. The technical directive is obviously focused on the bouncing and the porpoising which certain cars have struggled with.
“Obviously we saw at Silverstone, no cars were really affected by it. Is it the duty of the competitor to make sure their car is safe? Or is it the duty of the FIA to ensure that the competitor runs their car safely?”
Mercedes’ W13 car has been severely impacted by bouncing and porpoising this season, most notably in Baku in June with Lewis Hamilton suffering back pain as a result.
The new directive will result in more stringent tests regarding the floor of the car starting in Spa in August, with the skid planks sitffened and further monitoring of their impact on speed during a race weekend.
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