Fred Vasseur names F1 factor more important than flexi-wings

Fred Vasseur believes mastering Pirelli's tyres is a bigger performance differentiator than flexi-wings following an FIA clampdown. 

F1's governing body introduced firmer tests on front-wing flexing at the Spanish GP, with championship leaders McLaren tipped to be the most impacted, but ended up dominating the race in a one-two, having led every session and setting a fastest lap 1.2s quicker than the next best, which was Max Verstappen's Red Bull. 

Vasseur had claimed pre-Barcelona that the changes could be a "game-changer", and whilst he felt there was some impact of the new rules, he felt Pirelli's notoriously tricky tyres were a bigger performance differentiator than flexi-wings.

"You can't take Monaco as a reference, it is a bit out of the range of races," Vasseur began when asked by media, including RacingNews365, for his takeaway of the first weekend of the new rules.

"Even if you change the delta performance by one-tenth, it can make a huge difference in terms of position, but not compared to McLaren, because they are still two or three-tenths ahead. 

"If you take the picture of the race on lap 40, we were five seconds behind Norris, and I think that means the pace was much better than three or four races ago, when we were lapped in Miami. 

"I don't want to say it is the front-wing, it is not a shortcut, but we all have the same issue to understand the tyres and the compounds in terms of consistency and performance, that is true for us, but also true for others.

"We have much more on this than on the delta difference of the front-wing, it is not the biggest performance contributor, but you have to take it into consideration because with one-tenth, you completely change the grid, and that means it can be a performance differentiator."