FIA 'mini-DRS' clampdown impacted McLaren's competitiveness in China: Reports

The 2024 season was entangled with multiple debacles surrounding McLaren's sudden resurgence, and its 'mini-DRS' was deemed to be one of the culprits by rivals. This motto transferred into the 2025 campaign, which urged FIA to issue stricter regulations surrounding wing flexibility, causing the Woking-based squad a harder day in China, according to reports.

At the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri's rear wing's upper plane was seen bending backward, allowing a slot gap to open up, which teams reckoned helped the MCL38 to reduce the drag penalty on the long straights. Though the team got rid of the rear wing used in Baku and a similar incident was not noted again but the wing flexibility talk dominated the rest of the season.

Despite rival teams initially urging the FIA, the governing body was happy with how things panned out as all the teams passed the load tests subjected to the aerodynamic wings on the F1 cars. However, witnessing how teams have been utilizing the grey area of the regulation, they brought in stringent rules for the 2025 season, which were to be enacted as soon as the second race of the season in China.

The 0.75mm allowance for the deflection between the main plane of the rear wing and the DRS flap was brought down to 0.5mm. According to The Race, this rule change impacted McLaren as the MCL39 suffered a drag penalty in comparison to its rivals, like Red Bull, and was slower on the straights.

This hampered the English team from almost running away with the race win, unlike its pace in the dry in Australia. George Russell gave company to the papaya duo to snub away the victory if Piastri or Norris were hindered by reliability issues or a mistake.

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McLaren's 50th 1-2 finish in F1 could have been snatched away from the team

Lando Norris (L) and Oscar Piastri (R) at the F1 Grand Prix Of China - Source: Getty

While McLaren secured its 50th 1-2 finish as Oscar Piastri led Lando Norris to the chequered flag, the latter did not have a flawless race. The Briton started the race in P3 and quickly moved past George Russell.

Piastri was not able to open up a massive gap during the majority of the race, as the papaya duo was matched in pace. However, as the latter phase of the race started, the championship leader was met with a horrifying issue.

F1 brake pedals are stiff and rarely move more than a few millimeters. So, when this brake pedal starts going long, it starts to mess up with the driver's feeling of the brakes and lose confidence with the car during braking. Moreover, this issue curtailed Lando Norris in the race, as the McLaren driver later revealed his thoughts while driving the car (via Formula 1):

"It was scary. It’s like my worst nightmare when the brakes are failing. I was losing two, three, four seconds the last couple of laps, so I was a bit scared. I survived and made it to the end. I would have loved to have given it a little try and put Oscar under a little bit of pressure but not today. We’re satisfied, great result. We’ll go again next time."

Despite the late race scare, Norris was able to finish 1.3 seconds ahead of Russell and helped McLaren bag in their 50th 1-2 finish. The team now heads into the Japanese Grand Prix weekend of extending their lead in the championship standings.