Extreme vs conventional - 2019's wing design battleground

How the teams dealt with the 2019 front wing rule changes was one of the biggest technical question marks heading into the new Formula 1 season - and the likely title rivals have taken very different approaches

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On the track, the story of the past two years has been the battle between Mercedes and Ferrari. After a rather hefty regulation change over the off-season, the two have taken different design philosophies, hurling their feud even further into the realms of the off-track arena.

Each of the 10 teams has had to spend the winter searching for the downforce lost to the new breed of front wings, now two metres wide and stripped of their complexities. As a result, the rest of the car will have less opportunity to turn difficult-to-manage airflow around it, squandering the performance of the floor and diffuser.

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Author Jake Boxall-Legge

Jake Boxall-Legge Autosport’s Technical Editor. Having studied Automotive Engineering with Motorsport at the University of Hertfordshire, West Country-born Jake's original ambition was to design racing cars. During a year between studies in which he accidentally rekindled a love of writing, he took up a Master's in Motorsport Engineering at Oxford Brookes. Halfway through his master's year, he was offered a place on the Autosport Academy, conducting occasional freelance duties before becoming the press officer for Formula 2 and GP3 in 2018. Autosport offered him a return to the fold later that year to serve as its Technical Editor. His voice appears on a number of videos and podcasts, and can often be found writing about terrible Formula 1 cars in excruciating detail. In his spare time, Jake enjoys baking and blames his failure to make it past the Great British Bake-Off interviews on his tenuous grasp on choux pastry. His dream is to open a brunch cafe - and his willingness to make outrageous puns in inappropriate situations has earned him the contempt of his colleagues.