Ferrari removed halo wing after FIA talks

Ferrari removed its new halo mini wings over Formula 1's Chinese Grand Prix weekend in the wake of discussions with the FIA, The Race has learned.

While the new design had run in practice and passed scrutineering for the sprint element at Shanghai, it was taken off the cars on Saturday.

This followed questions from the governing body on Ferrari's regulatory interpretation that left the squad feeling it was not worth the distraction of debating it further in China or the risk of any post-race trouble if the FIA took a stance against it or a rival lodged a protest.

Talks are now set to continue about getting definitive legality clarity on the matter before Ferrari makes a call on whether the winglets return at a future race.

Eye-catching upgrades

Ferrari had arrived in China with two interesting aerodynamic upgrades to its car that had caused a stir in the pitlane.

At the rear, Ferrari trialled its new flip-flop upside down rear wing concept on a race weekend for the first time – with both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc running it in free practice.

The unique design allows the upper rear wing element to rotate fully through 180 degrees to run upside down when straight mode is activated – resulting in an increased reduction in drag and even potentially a bit of lift that would help reduce rolling resistance for the tyres.

Towards the front of the car, Ferrari also fitted two small winglets on either side of the central halo mount.

It said that the winglet had been added to the central aero pillar as a "minor update".

The team added in its official FIA submissions: "Not event specific, it simply returns a small aerodynamic load benefit."

The design of the winglets pointed to them being used as a means of channelling airflow better around the cockpit to help tidy up things downstream for potential downforce and efficiency benefits.

While Ferrari decided against running its new rear wing after practice because it felt that it needed more understanding of it, the team happily committed to the halo wings for the sprint event because of the added benefit they brought.

However, the winglets were interestingly removed between the Saturday sprint and main qualifying – which meant under parc ferme's rules that they were not going to be taken into the grand prix itself.

While there was no official explanation for the reason why the winglets were removed, The Race has learned that the decision was prompted by some discussions that took place between Ferrari and the FIA regarding their legality.

A senior source at Ferrari explained that there was some debate about the wings being "borderline" in the regulations, so Ferrari felt that it was not worth the risk of any post-race trouble if the FIA took a stance against them or a rival team opted to protest.

Furthermore with the wings only delivering a marginal gain of a few hundredths of a second, it was felt better to be prudent and avoid any chance of a legality issue for what was such a small uplight in performance.

What happened in FIA talks?

It is not clear what had piqued the interest of the FIA ahead of qualifying, because both Hamilton and Leclerc's cars passed scrutineering after the sprint race.

However, it may be that a rival team raised questions to the FIA about the rules compliance and offered an alternative viewpoint on their legality.

F1 teams are restricted in terms of where bodywork can be fitted, as it has to feature within legality boxes.

F1's technical regulations do allow extra fairings to be added to the halo, but these have typically run around the top edge.

Article C13.3 of F1's rulebook states "a fairing may be attached to the Secondary Roll Structure" and that it must lie in the RV-Halo box, have a convex radius less than 2mm, and be joined to the front bodywork with a fillet radius no greater than 10mm.

There could be a scenario where the FIA has decided to be cautious because that it approved Ferrari's design before China, other teams could feel emboldened to come up with wackier solutions in that area.

This is not the first time that Ferrari has pushed the boundaries when it comes to fitting aerodynamic devices to the halo.

At the 2018 Spanish Grand Prix, the team made use of wording in the rules to attach some mirrors and fins to the halo.

This design was banned after that Barcelona race because the FIA felt that Ferrari was using mounts in a way intended to deliver extra aerodynamic performance.

While the future of the halo wings is uncertain, Ferrari's flip flop wing is set to return at the Japanese Grand Prix, with team principal Fred Vasseur saying that more mileage should give Ferrari more confidence in the wing being good enough to race.

"If we want to put mileage on the parts, we need to do FP1," he said. "But we'll do it again probably next week [in Japan].

"[If] reliability will be OK, and the mileage will be OK. That we'll introduce it for the weekend."