Secret tests leave FIA satisfied over flexi-wings concerns

A number of teams had questioned over the Montreal weekend whether a rear wing design run by Ferrari was against the rules.

Onboard footage of the wing and the team's monkey seat at the Spanish GP had suggested the wing was rotating backwards at high speed, to reduce drag and increase top speed.

In light of the concerns expressed about the situation, the FIA elected to conduct some extra tests over the Montreal weekend to check on the situation.

And it has emerged that the FIA ramped up the force of the tests by 50 percent to see if there was any hint of the wing being able to deform at greater load, but nothing suspicious was found.

F1 race director Charlie Whiting told Motorsport.com: "The rear wings were checked on the top five constructors [on Saturday] and all were in conformity.

"We even increased the load by 50 percent in order to see if there was anything happening above the test load and all was well."

Case closed

Even though the Spanish GP footage prompted suspicions from other teams, the FIA has made it clear that for now the matter is closed.

It is not known, though, whether the wing design being used by Ferrari in Canada is exactly the same as the one that was run in Barcelona.

If there is evidence of teams having clever aero tricks then there remain options within the rules for the FIA to force a clampdown on the matter.

But Whiting says that, for now, there is no consideration for revised tests to prevent teams running trick designs.

"This option exists in the regulations, as you know, but there seems no need to invoke it at the moment," explained Whiting.

Red Bull's front wing had also come in for scrutiny, but team boss Christian Horner said there had been no issue with it either.

"The car has passed all the tests," he said. "They look at all these things with great scrutiny and there were no issues."