McLaren discloses the impact of FIA intervention as Haas and Alpine come clean on making alterations to the rear wing

McLaren F1 technical director Neil Houldey believed that the new FIA directive regarding the flexi rear wings would not impact them after Haas and Alpine spoke about making some changes to their rear wings. There has been a lot of chatter heading into the second race of the season at the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix regarding the new technical directive which comes down hard on the "Mini-DRS" tricks.

Under the new directive, the sport's governing body mentioned that the margin for deflection on the rear wings was reduced to half a millimeter from two millimeters. However, the FIA has given teams a further 0.25mm in relaxation given that they only had one week to implement the changes.

After Haas and Alpine admitted that they made changes to their rear wings ahead of China, McLaren technical director Neil Houldey denied that the new directive forced them to make any changes saying to Motorsport.com:

"No, we were lucky that we were checked in Melbourne and we were even below the numbers that the FIA has in their technical guideline. It doesn't affect us at all for this race, so performance-wise it shouldn't make any difference at all.

"I think we are just fine with this wing as well. The expectation in that respect is that we don't lose any performance with this TD, not now and not later in the season."

In the pre-race press conference, Lando Norris too believed that the clampdown on the "mini-DRS" would not have any bearing on their performance at the Shanghai International Circuit this weekend.

McLaren driver analyzes his performance in the Sprint Qualifying in China

McLaren driver Lando Norris stated that he made a mistake in his final push lap of the sprint qualifying session as he went wide on the final turn and ultimately finished P6 at the end.

In his post-Sprint quali interview, the championship leader reflected on his result and said (via Autosport):

“I made a mistake - I locked up in the last corner. But we're just struggling a bit more now. Just not quick enough, simply. Struggling a lot with the car. It’s more on me rather than the car. I can't make the car perfect. But, no, this was me just trying to just push a bit too much.

"So [I] just need to back off a little bit and not try to push too much. I think the car's still good and in a good window, maybe not good enough for pole. But we can definitely go forward.”

The McLaren driver will have a task on his hands in the 19 laps. Sprint race on Saturday, given that he will be starting behind the likes of Charles Leclerc, George Russell, and his teammate Oscar Piastri.