Why McLaren removed its new front wing before F1 sprint qualifying in Canada

McLaren introduced the second phase of its major Miami upgrade package in Montreal. Initially the second phase was expected to focus primarily on a new front wing, although the team had already indicated in Florida that it would involve slightly more than that.

That was confirmed in the FIA’s technical submissions on Friday, which among other components listed a new engine cover, revised rear suspension fairings and changes to the floor edges.

The new front wing remained the headline upgrade for this weekend, but McLaren has opted to temporarily park it. Norris started the only practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend with the new specification, while Piastri initially ran the previous version.

The Australian switched to the new wing later on, but McLaren explained that neither driver felt comfortable with it. As a result, the team reverted to the specification used in previous races, meaning Norris and Piastri will also use it for the sprint race due to parc fermé conditions.

“We were worried about being off the pace, and I didn’t have much confidence in the car,” Norris said after sprint qualifying. “But we made some changes that delivered a clear step forward.

“We returned to the previous spec front wing going into Sprint Quali, which gave me some more confidence.”

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images

Piastri reached a similar conclusion after completing the second row of the grid for McLaren: “It was a big package to deliver, and we have some more work to do on the front wing – we ended up running with the older one in Sprint Qualifying as we felt more comfortable with it.”

Both drivers and technical director of engineering Neil Houldey stressed that the rest of the package is delivering the expected gains, but that the front wing may require additional work.

“We've made great progress over the last few races. The upgrade in Miami had a big effect on closing the gap to the front, and the new parts we've brought here seem to have helped close it a little bit more again,” Houldey concluded.

“With that said, we reverted to the old specification front wing after FP1 this morning. We found during the session that the front wing wasn’t quite delivering what we expected, and we ultimately took the call to run the previous specification front wing, which gave the drivers more confidence and allowed them to unlock more performance.”

Although McLaren acknowledges that further investigation is needed to understand why the new front wing has not yet delivered what was expected, the question remains how much of that is circuit-specific.

Attacking the kerbs is a crucial factor at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and drivers need confidence to do so — something that was lacking with the updated front wing. Barcelona will provide the next representative track, allowing for a more accurate assessment of the front wing upgrade.