Guenther Steiner firmly responded to Lewis Hamilton’s remarks regarding the new FIA directive on flexible wings, which came into effect at the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix. The seven-time Formula 1 world champion had called the regulatory changes a “pointless waste of money,” stating that “the wings still flex, just a bit less,” and that his Ferrari “looks exactly the same as before.”
But Guenther Steiner, speaking as a guest on the Red Flags podcast, rejected that perspective: “Lewis said it was a waste of money. That’s not true. No one threw money away. Everyone worked to comply with the directive, and in many cases, it only required a simple and inexpensive modification.”
McLaren’s dominance even without flexi-wings disproves Lewis Hamilton
The FIA had informed teams back in January of the need to comply with stricter front wing flex tests. Some teams, such as McLaren, reportedly addressed the issue with simple reinforcement brackets. “I read that McLaren just added a small extra support. It was a low-cost update, nothing complicated,” Guenther Steiner noted, also making a pointed remark about the complaints from other teams:
“They protested, but what advantage did they get? None. In fact, they only gave McLaren more momentum.” In Barcelona, McLaren secured another dominant one-two finish, with Oscar Piastri ahead of Lando Norris, showing that the regulatory change had not slowed down the MCL39’s performance.
According to Guenther Steiner, the credit goes to the Woking team’s technical strength: “McLaren knows exactly what the car needs. If they lose the flexi-wing advantage, they go into the wind tunnel and regain the balance. Maybe not 100%, but 99.8%.” – the former Haas team boss concluded.
Despite expectations of a shake-up in the technical hierarchy, the directive has had no clear impact on the competitiveness of the teams. McLaren remains the team to beat, proving that with or without flexibility, the real strength lies in engineering know-how.
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