Piastri denies McLaren’s rear wing is a ‘magic bullet’

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Piastri denies McLaren’s rear wing is a ‘magic bullet’

Oscar Piastri has said he is happy with the apparent flexible rear wing on his race-winning car but it’s not a “magic bullet'” making McLaren the team to beat going into this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix.

Widely-shared footage from the *********** driver’s win last week in Azerbaijan appears to show part of the rear wing flexing under the airflow at high speed, in a way that could potentially reduce drag and allow the car to go faster.

“It’s legal,” Piastri said of the wing on Thursday. “We get tested a lot and it passes. It’s certainly not the magic ticket or magic bullet for why we’re competitive, but it’s legal. It passes all the tests, so I’m pretty happy with it.”

Piastri added the wing is not in a ‘grey area’ in the F1 rules, which generally ban moving aerodynamic devices, with the exception of the overtake-assisting DRS rear wing flap that all cars have.

“I honestly didn’t even know that it did that until three days ago,” Piastri said. “Obviously in the sport you find every bit of performance that you can without breaking the rules.

“I feel like that’s what we’re doing, and that’s what you need to do to become a championship-winning car and a championship-winning team.”

Standings leader Max Verstappen called for the FIA, the sport’s governing body, to issue a “clarification” of how the rules work in practice and how much wings can bend.

“It’s quite clear that it’s moving at speed. It might be smart, might not be smart, but at the end of the day, it’s up to the FIA to decide if it’s legal or not, right?” Verstappen said.

Piastri is fourth in the standings, 91 points off Verstappen and 32 behind teammate Lando Norris of Britain, who is Verstappen’s closest challenger.

Piastri closed the gap with his win in Baku, where his teammate recovered to finish fourth after qualifying a long way back, but he said he will still be expected by McLaren to help out Norris.

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