Horner admits Aston rear wing 'opens up another avenue'

Christian Horner says Red Bull is taking a close look at Aston Martin's radical new rear wing that appeared in Hungary and suggested his team might even be tempted to copy it.

Aston Martin has exploited a grey area of F1's technical regulations by designing a rear wing that is a major departure from the basic design used by teams' this season.

The aero element generated a lot of intrigue when it was unveiled on Friday as it uses a sculpted endplate-main plane assembly that resembles last year's rear wing, while integrating a novel rounded, rolled over upper edge.

After Friday's running, Sebastian Vettel downplayed the elements' impact but the attention of Aston's rivals was certainly captured by the creative design.

"I guess if it complies with the regs, that’s the main thing," Horner told the media. "It opens up another avenue, which is interesting.

"Maybe for once we will copy something off an Aston Martin rather than the other way around, so you never know."

Aston Martin designed the wing specifically for Hungary where team's typically run in a maximum downforce configuration.

While it received a green light from the FIA in terms of its conformity, rival engineers reckoned the wing's design was against the spirit of the rules in terms of minimizing the dirty air that swirls behind a car and which has helped produce better racing this season.

• Aston Martin rear wing update draws intrigue in Hungary

"When developing a wing or developing ideas, you normally don’t wait until the last moment before you show it," explained Aston team boss Mike Krack.

"We were in touch with the FIA all along the development to understand if this was something that could be accepted, and it finally was. That for us was the moment when we said ‘we’ll go for it’.

"It’s nothing special, at the end of the day. It’s an interpretation of the rules. We developed the wing according to that, in conjunction with the FIA, and that’s that."

Krack said that his team will deal with any attempt to outlaw the element by the Formula 1 Commission.

"I’m not concerned about a super-majority or anything," he said regarding a potential vote. "If the rules change and these kinds of designs are not allowed, we will cope with it."

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