Lewis Hamilton believes Formula 1's flexi-wing clampdown is a step in the wrong direction – because it gets rid of a "Band-Aid for poorly designed technical regulations".
The FIA is toughening up its tests of aero elasticity from this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix because it was concerned that things were getting exploited in this area too much.
But teams have found themselves forced to pursue that route so much because the wings have helped them overcome some fundamental weaknesses with the current generation of ground effect machinery.
The cars suffer from low-speed understeer and high-speed oversteer – and a flexible front wing has been viewed as the best way of balancing out these two problems as the wing adjusts its characteristics.
Without that ability to dial these issues out with the wing, teams are going to have to do it through mechanical elements such as suspension stiffness - which could pose some headaches when it comes to finding a good set-up compromise.
Asked by The Race how challenging that was going to be, Hamilton said: "Ultimately the flexi-wings are a Band-Aid for poorly-designed technical regulations, I would say.
"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."
With flexi-wings helping teams overcome a key problem with the current cars, Hamilton believes the clampdown is not necessarily a good thing.
"I don't know why this [clampdown] came about, if I'm really honest," he said. "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."
The new wings on display at Barcelona on Thursday suggest the new tougher tests have not forced anyone to make radical visible changes.
But until the cars hit the track for the first time, nobody is quite sure about the potential impact that it will have on the pecking order - although many are downplaying it.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen, whose team hopes to gain from the change, said about the potential impact said it would be "not so much" of a shake-up.
"It will change the balance of the car probably a little bit. For us, not too much," he continued.
"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."
Williams driver Carlos Sainz reckoned the impact would be not more than a "one-tenth swing up or down through the field" – although such margins can count for a lot in F1.
Most eyes are on the impact the change could have on McLaren, which has exploited the flexi front wings to good effect. But the team's world championship leader Oscar Piastri played down the prospect of a radical form shake-up.
"I think the biggest problem is going to be how overhyped it is, probably," he explained. "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 [Norris] 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."
