F1 | Aston Martin modifies rear wing with trimmed flap for Monza’s high-speed challenge. Aston Martin introduces a modified rear wing for the 2025 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

F1 | Aston Martin trims rear wing flap to chase speed at Monza

For the Italian Grand Prix, Aston Martin has brought an updated version of its rear wing. The team has retained the familiar “V-shaped” profile first seen at Spa-Francorchamps but introduced a new change to the flap element, which is now trimmed at the top. The purpose of this solution is to reduce aerodynamic drag, allowing the AMR25 to achieve greater top speeds on the straights and to hide some of the car’s existing weaknesses.

Monza, known worldwide as the “Temple of Speed,” is the ultimate proving ground for low-downforce setups. Every Formula 1 team arrives in Italy with extreme aerodynamic solutions aimed at minimizing drag, maximizing speed on the long straights, and avoiding being an easy target during wheel-to-wheel battles. Aston Martin has followed the same approach, debuting a set of refinements designed specifically to improve efficiency under low-drag conditions.

The race weekend at Spa had already exposed one of the Aston Martin AMR25’s main vulnerabilities: its competitiveness on high-speed tracks is fragile and difficult to balance. In Belgium, the British squad adopted different setups between the Sprint race and the main Grand Prix, running a higher-downforce rear wing on Sunday to better handle the threat of rain. It was a choice dictated by necessity, but one that ultimately highlighted the car’s limitations in terms of aerodynamic efficiency.

That scenario underlined a deeper, structural weakness in the AMR25. Since the start of the 2025 season, the car has struggled with a lack of downforce generated by the bodywork itself. To counteract this, Aston Martin’s engineers have often been forced into more conservative setups, attempting to recover grip levels by relying on the wings. However, this strategy inevitably increased drag, compromising top speed and overall efficiency on circuits where maximum velocity is essential.

Monza, however, presents an entirely different challenge compared to Spa. The historic Italian track features high-speed corners and demands a much higher average lap speed. For this reason, Aston Martin has chosen to bring fresh updates to the rear of the AMR25, aimed at maximizing efficiency across the circuit’s famously long straights.

As shown in pit lane images captured by our correspondent Beatrice Frangione, the mainplane of the rear wing remains the same as the “V-shaped” version inspired by McLaren, which was first introduced before the summer break to boost straight-line performance. The real innovation lies in the movable flap element. On the latest version, clearly visible on the right side of the comparison, the flap features a cut at the top, designed to reduce the effective surface area and therefore generate less aerodynamic drag.

While the modification may look relatively simple and inexpensive to produce, it represents a much more aggressive solution compared to what was used in 2024. At that time, Aston Martin opted for a higher-downforce rear wing, clearly visible on the left side of the comparison images, even adding a small nolder on the flap to maximize the DRS effect. The AMR24 benefited greatly from that approach, but the philosophy is very different this year at Monza, where drag reduction has taken priority.

Coming into the Italian Grand Prix, Aston Martin is riding the momentum of two positive weekends in Hungary and the Netherlands, both high-downforce tracks that masked some of the AMR25’s underlying issues. A similar scenario may repeat itself at Singapore. But at Monza, there is nowhere to hide: aerodynamic efficiency is the deciding factor, and only the teams that have perfected low-drag setups will remain competitive.