In the closing stages of the race, the rear-facing camera on Ocon’s A523 showed the wing oscillating in dramatic fashion at high speed.
McLaren’s Lando Norris, who was following the Alpine closely, made it clear that he viewed it as a safety issue.
The FIA’s current policy in situations when there is an issue with items such as loose bodywork is that the onus is on the team to decide whether or not it is safe to continue.
Alpine decided that it was and Ocon duly carried on to the flag to claim eighth place.
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” said Szafnauer when asked about the wing by Autosport.
“It didn't fail. So it stayed on. We designed that wing and we manufacture it. So that failure mode was probably most familiar to us. And we were happy that it wasn't going to come off.
"We test for that in R&D, so we put it through those tests, just because of the way it's mounted, and we, therefore, see those types of modes and understand if it's going to come off or not. So we're happy that with all the testing that we do, it wasn't.”
Source: Autosport