The deletion of Straight Mode in Monaco has opened up an opportunity for teams to squeeze just a little more downforce from their rear wings.
The most dramatic evidence of this is seen on the cars of Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren, all of whom have added big mainplane-mounted winglets standing proud of the centre of the upper elements.
These have been placed where the Straight Mode actuator would normally be fitted, but with those actuators surplus to requirements for this weekend, the aforementioned teams have been quick to pounce on the opportunity.
Essentially it is a regulation loophole, because the dimensions and height of the wing are strictly defined – and these winglets are well beyond the maximum height permitted for the rest of the wing.
But those regulations do not apply to the small centre section, an allowance that was made to permit teams to incorporate the wing turning mechanisms needed for the change between the Straight Mode and Corner Mode introduced this year.
The Mercedes version is even more extreme than that of Red Bull and McLaren, in that it has removed the actuator pod and fitted a highly complex set of winglets stretching further back, whereas on the Red Bull the pod has been repurposed, serving as a mount for two simpler winglets.
All these steep-angled winglets are mounted higher than the main wing, and so will benefit from a cleaner airflow and should be very effective for their size.
At more conventional tracks, even if Straight Mode was deleted, there would almost certainly be no advantage to these winglets as they would cost more in drag than what they delivered in downforce.
But the layout of Monaco means that drag is unimportant and downforce more valuable than ever. Monaco is both the least power-sensitive and least drag-sensitive circuit on the F1 calendar. Downforce and chassis balance assume even greater importance than normal.
These innovations are just the latest in a long lineage of special Monaco aerodynamic solutions, as extra winglets have frequently featured on the cars here wherever the regulations of the time have created a space for them.
In practice for the 2001 Monaco Grand Prix, the Jordan and Arrows teams each ran with massive extra wings – high above the front wing on the Arrows and above the front of the cockpit on the Jordan. These were immediately banned on safety grounds by the FIA.
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