Midland vow to solve flexi wing issue

The team were disqualified from the race for having illegally flexing rear wings. Race stewards said in a statement that an inspection of the cars' lower rear wing element had showed "excessive flexibility."

Dutchman Christijan Albers and Portugal's Tiago Monteiro, who had finished 13th and 14th respectively, were removed from the official classification.

Technical director James Key has said they will make sure the issue is not repeated in the future.

"We've always been happy with the wing, but I think looking at the parts at the end of the race, I have to admit they were relatively old, and they weren't in particularly good condition - they had softened up quite a bit," Key said.

"They had done a lot of miles, and they tend to be subjected to a great deal of hot exhaust temperatures and that sort of thing.

"We are a small team, and we can't always make lots of new bits for all the cars. But, to be honest, with the benefit of hindsight, we should probably have made some new bits a while ago, as that's really what caused the problem.

"It's unfortunate, but we took on board what they said, and we'll have changes in place for the next race.

"It's not going to affect the performance of the car in any way; that wasn't part of it at all. We'll just go away and correct it, either by modifying the existing bits or by producing new parts in time for Hungary. Either way, we will have wings which will avoid any of these issues in the future."

Key said fixing the problem will not affect their performance.

"It was a disappointing end to the weekend, really," said Key. "We had a pretty open discussion with the stewards, and they weren't too happy with the stiffness of the lower rear wings. We went through it and I made it clear they are non-structural components, so they are designed to be very lightweight.

"They asked a few questions and I put our case forward. They came back to us and made some points that we've taken on board, and we'll address those for the next race, so we won't face the same issue again.

"Some of the points made by the stewards weren't correct, but it's a simple fix that's not going to affect performance anyway. I think it's best just to let it rest and carry on."