For the second weekend in a row, one of many extra attention-grabbing technical nuances from the Singapore Grand Prix revolved round McLaren and its rear wing alternative.
However fairly than this being a controversial speaking level like in Baku, as consideration was grabbed by its ‘mini-DRS’, as an alternative the fascinating factor to final week was about it bucking the development with its downforce ranges.
Whereas the remainder of the sphere took the standard strategy of becoming its automobiles with their highest downforce choice, McLaren was alone in not doing it – it went a step down on downforce.
This was a call that the group seemingly settled into early-on within the weekend too.
McLaren cut up its automotive from the off. Oscar Piastri went for the max downforce association in FP1, earlier than switching to the step down stage that Lando Norris had run from the beginning.
As its opponents wrestled their equipment across the Singapore road monitor with excessive downforce preparations just like what could be put in at Monaco and Hungary (inset), McLaren bridged the hole between downforce ranges with an up to date beam wing association.
The brand new beam wing association remains to be a bi-plane format, with the decrease, extra loaded factor retained.
The higher extra slat-like factor was elevated in dimension to enhance the connection between the 2 parts and assist create a stronger connection between them, the diffuser and rear wing.
The ‘mini-DRS’ controversy

McLaren MCL38 rear wing
Picture by: Giorgio Piola
McLaren’s rear wing was a giant speaking level heading into Singapore, with footage from the rear-facing onboard digital camera of Oscar Piastri’s MCL38 in Baku displaying distortion within the slot hole between the mainplane and higher flap.
This opening up of the hole between wing parts would assist cut back drag and improve straight-line pace.
While McLaren shouldn’t be the one group to be using flexibility in its rear wing to cut back drag, the means by which McLaren had been doing so was a brand new technique from what we’ve seen previously.
On this occasion, there was a secondary impact, whereby the vanguard of the higher flap flexes upwards, which is most seen within the entrance corners of the flap (crimson arrow, above).
This ‘mini-DRS’, because it rapidly turned dubbed, was anticipated to supply a high pace increase in comparison with its rivals – though simply how a lot was not clear.
The wing handed the FIA laws with the static load exams however, following strain from rivals, McLaren agreed with the governing physique to make modifications to this low-downforce specification for when it probably reappears on the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Crimson Bull’s minor tweaks

Crimson Bull Racing RB20 technical element
Picture by: Giorgio Piola
Crimson Bull has been on the backfoot of late, because the RB20 has didn’t ship the extent of efficiency that had been anticipated.
Updates that arrived in the course of the season have additional narrowed the automotive’s working window.
And, while the group now seemingly understands the place issues went flawed for it by way of the event cycle, the fixes gained’t be obtainable in a single day.
No matter its long-term options, it additionally has to focus its efforts on enhancing the automotive on a race-by-race foundation and as such, it modified its entrance brake meeting for the Singapore Grand Prix.
This was an effort to each assist enhance brake cooling and alter the transmission of warmth between the brakes and tyres, through the wheel rim.
That is the kind of small element change that we’ve seen groups make for plenty of years however is much less apparent with this technology of automotive. That’s as a result of the outermost brake drum have to be sealed, fairly than having the openings that many used for aerodynamic impact throughout earlier regulatory eras.
Within the case of this new association on the RB20, the design of the inside basket has been altered to incorporate a trench-like cutout, with a window round a portion of the brake disc, which additionally has a steel element, which can act as a heatsink.
The association that’s being employed will reroute warmth being generated by the brakes across the meeting and out the rear-facing duct that’s mounted on the inboard face of the brake duct fence.
Ferrari’s new entrance wing

Ferrari SF-24 entrance wing comparability
Picture by: Giorgio Piola
In the meantime, there was a brand new entrance wing on the menu for Ferrari in Singapore, because it seemed to additional capitalise on the efficiency uplift that its latest ground updates have supplied in the previous few races.
Initially scheduled for the US Grand Prix and fast-tracked for Singapore, it’s understood that Ferrari put extra of its give attention to the wing’s flexibility below load, with rivals McLaren and Mercedes having seemingly made vital good points having centered on its potential.
This has resulted in a number of alterations being made to the entrance wing’s structure, with the change made to the outboard flap and endplate juncture maybe essentially the most outstanding of those options.
It has taken a really related strategy to McLaren right here, because the MCL38’s wing sports activities a extra aggressively dog-eared semi-detached flap design to be able to assist tune the vortex that’s spilled in that outer nook and had an affect on the wake generated by the wheel meeting thereafter.
The form and distribution of the flaps has additionally been adjusted to raised go well with the aforementioned shift in outboard traits, while additionally considering how extra flexion can have a bearing on its efficiency from each a downforce and drag perspective.
Notably, there’s additionally a change to the form of the central part of the mainplane, with the depth and transitional form of the drooped part amended.