McLaren didn’t deserve ’exaggerated’ wing ruckus - FIA

The Formula 1 world overreacted to the controversy surrounding McLaren’s controversial ’mini DRS’ rear wing, a top FIA official admits.

Red Bull, supported behind the scenes by Ferrari, protested to the FIA three times about the clever bending of McLaren’s Baku-spec rear wing.

It is believed the FIA ultimately told McLaren a good solution to the problem would be to make voluntary tweaks to the design moving forward, which the team agreed to.

After Lando Norris put his McLaren on pole on Saturday, team boss Andrea Stella said of the rear wing saga: "For us it is just good news that our opponents are distracted by these sorts of things.

"Because that means they are not focusing on themselves. The way they are talking about it is a red herring," he added. "The wing was always legal. This is not a subject at all, it’s just a story.

"We’ll keep bringing upgrades. That’s what we do. We let the performance on the track speak for itself."

Even Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s single seater director, spoke up in defence of the Woking based team on Saturday.

"The wing passed all the tests and satisfied what was written in the technical directives," he told Sky Italia. "It did not deserve this exaggeration."

As for the way the FIA tried to quietly handle the controversy, Tombazis added: "All the teams, without exception, even those who are making the loudest noises now, have sometimes benefited from this approach.

"In my opinion, it was the right thing to do in a sporting way and did not deserve this exaggeration. Then again, it is natural because the championship is very tight.

"In Baku, the sun was in a certain direction, which highlighted this phenomenon more. This was not the case in Monza and Spa, where no one noticed it. Maybe if someone had come to us, we would have acted a little sooner," he concluded.

Meanwhile, although Norris is on pole, Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko was delighted that Max Verstappen began to emerge from the team’s performance slump by qualifying P2 in Singapore.

"Yesterday we couldn’t even dream of this," he told ORF. "Free practice was a disaster. In the end, Max was a bit unlucky in qualifying because he had to lift off the gas.

"I think he would have had enough for pole position. But anyway, Norris’ starts have certainly not been convincing, so Max will try to take advantage of that.

"If I was Norris and I knew that of the seven times I started first I had not managed to keep the lead once, that would be on my nerves too," Marko smiled.