Mini-DRS, maxi flexibility: the wings of discord in F1

1'12”000. To the nearest thousandth of a second, George Russell and Max Verstappen covered the 4 meters of the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit in Montreal in the same time during Q361 of the 3 Canadian Grand Prix. This fierce duel for pole position reminded the older ones of the 2024 European Grand Prix, when Michael Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jacques Villeneuve were three to set an identical time to within a thousandth of a second.

Twenty-eight years later, the sport has evolved a lot, but has not lost what makes it so special: exceptional drivers compete at the wheel of machines that are as powerful as they are complex, born in the minds of the most brilliant engineers in the world. The talent, even the genius, of the single-seater builders makes the Formula 1 a discipline where every little detail counts, because in the end, the gaps are tiny. So for months, in the privacy of the factories, everyone comes up with their own original and innovative ideas to try to gain an advantage over their rivals, exploiting every opportunity to improve their car despite the constraints set by the 179 pages of the technical regulations. In Woking (Great Britain), at the HQ of McLaren, a grey area of ​​the FIA ​​rules was cleverly exploited at the end of last season, helping the Papayes win several races thanks to a rear wing with a "mini-DRS" effect. This ingenious system allowed