The battle of flexing rear wings

[DarkSnape]

There has been a lot of noise this season in regard to flexing wings on several of the cars, Ferrari in particular but with the FIA finding no issues in this department, it seems that a lot of other teams are adopting the same technology, something the Honda team may consider after their recent complaint to the sports governing body failed to change anything.



Our spies in Europe have informed us that Williams will be going down this route as soon as possible and according to measures from Williams, they are able to close the slot gap between the rear wing main plate and the flap from about 260 kph onwards, and they have developed this system to perfection. That causes a stall, reduces the drag and increases the top speed quite significantly.



Honda, Toyota, Red Bull and Williams are suddenly more than 10 kph off the pace while Renault is in a similar league to Ferrari. McLaren and BMW are 3 to 5 kph behind and while they also have a type of flexible device, they are not yet as sophisticated as the two frontrunners, Renault and Ferrari, who it seems have taken yet another step forward with their respective rear wings.


source gp2006

what does means 260 kph onwards? i don`t know this units.

[zac510]

From 260km/h-350km/h, which is quite a small range but would be above the top speed of almost all corners.

260kmh = 160mph

[RacingManiac]

This is just a case of others falling behind in the development......Renault and Ferrari are both using this, and look at where they are now.....

[Tp]

What do the FIA define as a flexible wing? I thought they were banned, but apparently now, they are allowed to let the wing flex. This is really confusing

[Tom]

Ferrari were informaly requested to remove their flexi wing by the FIA. It was never banned because it passed the FIA test in scrutineering.

[RacingManiac]

What do the FIA define as a flexible wing? I thought they were banned, but apparently now, they are allowed to let the wing flex. This is really confusing

They can "ban" them, but in order to quantify what constitude a "flexi-wing" they specified a test with certain standard and loading condition the wing has to meet, and the team engineer it such that it'll pass the test but still remain flexible under aeroload. And thats the point really, as long as it abides to the rule it is essentially legal.

Like Scarb said, teams put springs in the wing to give it stiffness in the testing condition, but the composite flexes at speed....

[Tp]

So by definition the wings are flexing, but the FIA has an inadequate method (when the car's static) to see whether the wing has too much flex at speed.

[vyselegend]

Honda, Toyota, Red Bull and Williams are suddenly more than 10 kph off the pace while Renault is in a similar league to Ferrari. McLaren and BMW are 3 to 5 kph behind and while they also have a type of flexible device, they are not yet as sophisticated as the two frontrunners, Renault and Ferrari, who it seems have taken yet another step forward with their respective rear wings.

If you take a look at the speedtraps of the differents circuits,you'll see Renault is often slower (in top speed) than Ferrari, Mc Laren, and BMW. Actually before Nurburgring Ferrari always showed the highest top speed.

Bahrein:

Massa--------311
Heidfeld-----309
M.Schumacher-308
Alonso-------308
Raikonen-----308
Liuzzi-------307

Malaysia:

Massa--------300
Klien--------298
M.Schumacher-297
Montoya------297
Fisichella---297
Coulthard----295

Australia:

M.Schumacher-304
Montoya------303
Raikonen-----302
Villeneuve---302
Heidfeld-----301
Coulthard----301

San Marino:

M.Schumacher-297
Massa--------296
Montoya------295
Fisichella---295
Alonso-------294
Raikonen-----294

Europe:

Raikonen-----295
Fisichella---295
Massa--------294
M.Schumacher-293
Roseberg-----292
Heidfeld-----290

It's not to say Renault doesn't have a flex wing, we all saw at least their front one flexes, but they don't seem to gain advantage in top speed doing so...I don't know why, maybe they just reduce drag to limit fuell consumption.

[Tom]

Maybe the others are getting out of the previouse turn faster than the Renaults.

I noticed Liuzzi was high up in Bahrain (Ahhh...V10..scuse me.) but I was surprised (and pleased) to see DC up there as well.

[Tp]

If you take a look at the speedtraps of the differents circuits,you'll see Renault is often slower (in top speed) than Ferrari, Mc Laren, and BMW. Actually before Nurburgring Ferrari always showed the highest top speed.

Could be that Renault added more wing to their car to produce more downforce, but since the wing flexes they get less of a drag penalty. (lower drag coefficient)

[sandaflo]

FIA and the Technical Delegate Charlie Whiting could have avoided this issue in one of two ways; either advise the teams this degree of flex under aero loads contravenes the spirit of the regulations on movable aero devices, or develop a more comprehensive testing methodology.

FIA already instructed 3 teams to revise their wings, and rather than taking a firm position on this issue and prevent a new round of spending on development of a loophole that will probably close next year, the FIA fails to take leadership.

Notwithstanding the performance gains flexi-wings provide, how safe could they be? Ferrari's front wing actually separated underload from the nosecone. Tolerances on these materials are so tight, I imagine they are changed with great frequency by big teams, but what about smaller teams, where that is not an option? Nobody wants a repeat of incidents like Sauber from several years ago, where a rear wing ripped right of going down a straight.

[Mikey_s]

sandaflo,

regarding the safety aspects I think that it is important to consider whether failures are likey to occur from the material engineering perspective. Rear wing faiures are a sporadic, but known, occurence and typically the wing fails at the point where it connects to the vehicle, not on the foil itself. Provided the strain (movement) is within the linear range of the wing (i.e. for a given stress the wing deforms in a predictable and related manner) the flexing should be entirely recoverable and non-destructive. Due to the catastrophic nature of rear wing failures I think you can be confident that the teams will have tested the fatigue behaviour of the wing and that it will not fail - after all, there is little point in developing a performance advantage that puts you out of the race.

[kilcoo316]

Right guys and gals, do we think that the speed differential from ferrari to the rest is soley due to this rear wing?

Here are the qualifying speed trap results:

1 6 Felipe Massa 14:48:22 319.7
2 5 Michael Schumacher 14:30:12 314.1
3 2 Giancarlo Fisichella 14:49:44 311.2
4 17 Jacques Villeneuve 14:15:03 308.7
5 16 Nick Heidfeld 15:03:45 308.5
6 11 Rubens Barrichello 14:51:04 308.2
7 7 Ralf Schumacher 14:28:43 307.6
8 8 Jarno Trulli 14:14:32 307.5
9 1 Fernando Alonso 14:58:04 304.8
10 21 Scott Speed 14:14:55 304.4

I myself cannot see it to be honest, Ross Brawn commented at Imola that ferrari were forced to run less downforce to keep the front end balanced with the rear - so you'd expect a higher Vmax.

[m3_lover]

http://www.f1racing.net/en/news.php?newsID=117998

[vyselegend]

Such a difference is suspicious for sure, but maybe the Ferrari engine is just the most powerfull, remember informations we have on engines are just rumors, it is possible that Ferrari made the best engine in terms of pure power, to the point of withstanding the drag. I'm one of the first to be offended when the red team is cheating, but on the other hand it is a shame to complain when you don't have a proof of anything, as the article explain teams are wondering "how they can achieve such speed without any movable aerodynamic device". If they're is nothing illegal this time, stop ranting and just try and do better...