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Williams' Robson has no problem with Aston's new wing

Williams' head of vehicle performance Dave Robson says he sees no issue with Aston Martin's innovative rear wing design despite complaints from other teams on the grid.

The FIA has already stated that the new component complied with this year's regulations. But there have been complaints from rival teams that while technically legal, it doesn't comply with the 'spirit of the regulations'.

Robson says that this is nonsense and that other designers are simply jealous of the way Aston Martin has found a valuable loophole to exploit allowing them to bring back a version of the boxed end plates seen in 2021.

“I’m not aware of there being any problem with it," he said. "The rules are so complicated and the way that they are written means that there are always potential loopholes.

"Because they’re written in so much detail, no one is going to follow the 'spirit' if there is a way to get an advantage," he added. “I don’t see any problem with that, that is just how the sport is.

“Fair play to Aston Martin. That’s what makes the sport interesting, to be honest, so I’ve got no problem with that at all.

As for whether or not it's against the 'spirit' of the rules, Robson dismissed that line of argument: "Isn’t that what you say when you’re a bit jealous and realise that you didn’t see it yourself?

“On that particular piece of technology, if it is legal, and it seems to be, that’s okay.

"I was talking more about the spirit of the regulation and not necessarily adhering to what someone might consider to be the spirit.

“If it’s technically legal, but if some people wanted to argue that it is against the spirit, I think that just means that the regs need tightening up in the way that they’re written."

Other teams are spending some of their summer break analysing the new Aston wing to see if it's something they can exploit for themselves.

"It’s just now whether people spend time and effort copying it, or whether everyone agrees that we’ll change the way the rules are written to line the rules up with what the intended spirit is.

“We’ll see how that pans out," he added.

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has said he expected other teams on the grid to try and copy elements of the AMR22's new wing.

"The next high downforce races are Netherlands and Singapore," he said. "I will be surprised if we are the only ones in Singapore racing with this idea."

Currently in last place but one in the constructors championship, Krack said that the team still needs to improve its handling through high speed corners.

"We have made quite good progress over all these races," he insisted. "Our main weakness - you see it when you look at tracks like Silverstone or Austria. When you have high speed corners, we struggle.

"From that point of view we need to work on the aerodynamics, but we can still improve this car."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

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