08/09/2010
NEWS STORY
In anticipation of a revised flexing test at Monza this weekend McLaren chief engineer Tim Goss has admitted that the Woking outfit has made a number of changes to its car.
In the wake of complaints from a number of teams that the front wings on the Red Bulls and Ferrari were flexing, the FIA modified its test in Belgium with an even stricter test scheduled for Monza. Both Red Bull and McLaren passed the Monza test however, this weekend, in addition to the wings, the stewards will be looking at the floors of the cars and in anticipation of this McLaren has made the necessary modifications.
"Firstly, on the front wings, we haven't had to make any modifications to the front wings in terms of body work flexibility," said Goss in the latest Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in press conference.
"The front wing options that we have are a dedicated solution that we've had so far this season," he continued. "As far as the bib is concerned, the new aspect load test is a little challenging and therefore we've had to make some minor modifications to ensure that we're well inside the limits that the FIA has set on that. So we've modified our bib, taking the opportunity to turn it into a minor performance upgrade as well.
"As far as the off-set bib test is concerned, then I'd expect most teams would probably have had to make changes to comply with that," he added. "As far as articulated planks are concerned, there are a number of teams that run floor skids in multiple pieces, and the FIA have tried to ban articulated skid blocks and I imagine other teams would have to make modifications to comply with that."