Flexi wings will disappear

[DarkSnape]

Source Autosport.com
Motor racing's governing body has moved to bring an end to renewed concerns about flexi-wings in Formula One by implementing immediate changes to the rear wing regulations, autosport.com can reveal. FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting has written to the teams advising them that, from the Canadian Grand Prix, slot-gap separators will have to be added to their rear wings in a bid to ensure that no teams' wings can flex at high speed.

The controversy surrounding flexi-wings in the sport appeared to have died down after Ferrari, McLaren and BMW were asked to make revisions to their design after the Malaysian Grand Prix - when a number of teams had threatened to protest Michael Schumacher's car.

However, continued strong straight line performance from Ferrari, allied to dramatic improvements to speed from BMW-Sauber, led to renewed suspicions within the paddock that some teams were continuing to make use of some flexibility in their wings. There were no suggestions that the teams were breaking the regulations though. The key area of exploitation was in designing the wings in such a way that the slot-gap between the two elements of the rear wing closed up at high speed, thereby reducing drag and increasing straight line speed. The slot gap would then open up at lower speed to ensure the wing delivered maximum downforce through the corners. There are also suggestions that above a certain speed some teams have managed to get their aero package to stall - which leaves them with zero drag.

Williams technical director Sam Michael said: "The teams will have to have a slot gap separator so the slot gap cannot close."The wording of the directive is that no part of the wing can be more than 250mm laterally away from the support. So you can have a separator to stop it or you can have a snubber so that the support does not move."

FIA only reacts when BMW starts making progress

[JimmyK]

ah, well I'm not too fussed either way, they were amazing pieces of kit though.

on the ITV coverage of the Silverstone GP, one of them said that the reason Williams were off the pace is because they don't use flexing wings.

I'm sure at a past GP though, I saw that winglet/fin thing sticking off the leading edge of the sidepod vibrating massively from side to side, but that wouldn't really help, so it was probably just turbulance.

[Apex]

Source Autosport.com

There are also suggestions that above a certain speed some teams have managed to get their aero package to stall - which leaves them with zero drag.

Zero Drag? THE UFO's have landed!

[Tom]

Heres an idea. In theory if you jumped in an F1 car and drove it enough you would eventually get quite good at it, right? What if the team reduced downforce and trained the drivers to cope with it without loosing too much time. Thats what they used to do with cars like the Auto Unions, they'd just keep driving till they got used to the quirky handling.
Just seems to me a lot of fuss is made over setup but if the drivers just got on with it they might overcome the problems by adjusting their driving style accordingly.

[i70q7m7ghw]

In theory it would work. But if a car is unbalanced no amount of driving is going to recover the lost tenths. If the car is oversteering the driver loses time sliding out of corners, even if he keeps it clean he would have lost time because there is no traction. If the car is understeering the he would just be going slower in the corners than everyone else trying to fight the understeer.

[Lightspeed]

Source Autosport.com

The controversy surrounding flexi-wings in the sport appeared to have died down after Ferrari, McLaren and BMW were asked to make revisions to their design after the Malaysian Grand Prix - when a number of teams had threatened to protest Michael Schumacher's car.

Can i ask why only Schuey is being targetted ? Could they have not "threatened" to protest the Ferrari team's cars rather than targetting MS ?

[manchild]

Can i ask why only Schuey is being targetted ? Could they have not "threatened" to protest the Ferrari team's cars rather than targetting MS ?

Because Massa didn't finish in those first several races and FIA regulations regarding offical protest say that protest is made on car with starting number - not on whole team. Since only Ferrari car No.5 finished protest was only possible on Schuey's car. Its like that in all FIA based racing series.

Basically, if Massa didn't smash his rear wings protests were possible on his car too but since he coudln't be stripped from points since he won none protesting teams would get nothing from that.

[Steven]

FIA only reacts when BMW starts making progress

Well yes the FIA is acting a bit strange here and I think they don't really know what to do to solve it correctly.

However, I don't think this proposed rule will solve the flexing, and even more I think BMW is actually now using a wing that closes the slot gap. In fact, having watched the BMW wing on an onboard camera, it looks like the flaps are moving as one part, and that the lower elements at the height of the rear light are causing the wing to move down (and bend backwards).

[tomazy]

what a difirence does this non flex rule make :shock:

silverstone top speeds:

1 38 Robert Kubica 14:59:26 286.3

2 5 Michael Schumacher 15:00:17 285.6

3 6 Felipe Massa 14:35:32 285.5

4 35 Alexander Wurz 14:58:59 285.3

5 1 Fernando Alonso 15:01:16 283.2

6 37 Robert Doornbos 14:51:13 282.7

7 36 Anthony Davidson 14:59:01 282.5

8 12 Jenson Button 14:58:00 282.2

9 10 Nico Rosberg 14:38:04 282.0

10 9 Mark Webber 14:19:56 281.5

11 39 Giorgio Mondini 14:48:58 280.8

12 14 David Coulthard 14:37:43 280.7

13 11 Rubens Barrichello 14:55:36 280.6

14 7 Ralf Schumacher 14:51:11 279.9

15 2 Giancarlo Fisichella 14:27:32 279.8

16 16 Nick Heidfeld 14:36:05 279.8

17 17 Jacques Villeneuve 14:29:33 279.6

18 15 Christian Klien 14:55:15 279.5

19 4 Juan Pablo Montoya 14:58:04 279.4

20 3 Kimi Räikkönen 14:36:48 279.2

21 23 Franck Montagny 15:00:26 278.7

22 8 Jarno Trulli 14:48:54 278.5

23 21 Scott Speed 14:57:24 278.4

24 19 Christijan Albers 14:49:05 278.3

25 41 Sakon Yamamoto 14:57:42 277.7

26 18 Tiago Monteiro 14:59:45 277.4

27 20 Vitantonio Liuzzi 14:53:28 276.9

28 22 Takuma Sato 14:24:03 276.7

29 40 Neel Jani 14:37:23 275.4


2006 Canadian Grand Prix


Pos No Driver Time of Day Speed

1 35 Alexander Wurz 14:59:27 319.6

2 36 Anthony Davidson 14:37:23 315.0

3 3 Kimi Räikkönen 14:55:39 314.9

4 22 Takuma Sato 14:55:55 314.6

5 1 Fernando Alonso 14:59:49 314.3

6 37 Robert Doornbos 14:55:47 314.0

7 20 Vitantonio Liuzzi 14:52:52 313.8

8 9 Mark Webber 14:33:31 313.6

9 38 Robert Kubica 14:38:39 313.4

10 23 Franck Montagny 14:35:20 313.2

11 2 Giancarlo Fisichella 15:01:00 313.1

12 14 David Coulthard 14:57:58 312.8

13 39 Giorgio Mondini 14:59:26 312.8

14 21 Scott Speed 14:56:25 312.6

15 40 Neel Jani 14:04:25 312.5

16 16 Nick Heidfeld 14:37:32 311.7

17 15 Christian Klien 14:55:29 311.6

18 17 Jacques Villeneuve 14:26:12 311.5

19 7 Ralf Schumacher 15:00:41 311.5

20 11 Rubens Barrichello 14:20:30 311.1

21 12 Jenson Button 14:22:05 310.9

22 41 Sakon Yamamoto 14:07:51 310.7

23 5 Michael Schumacher 14:49:27 310.6

24 6 Felipe Massa 14:12:20 310.4

25 10 Nico Rosberg 14:52:29 309.6

26 19 Christijan Albers 14:51:36 309.1

27 4 Juan Pablo Montoya 14:59:16 308.7

28 18 Tiago Monteiro 14:18:13 306.8

29 8 Jarno Trulli 14:30:57 304.6


look at ferrari! the times are from second friday practice and i got them on http://www.f1.com

[Guest]

you can't compare apples and oranges, silverstone top speeds are expected to be lower for one. secondly flexi wings would help to increase top speed. the reason to use a flexi wing is that as speed increases the force pushing on wing (drag) causes the wing to flex and decrease the frontal area which in turn decreases the drag; therefore allowing for higher top speed. so if you were to compare apples to apples here you would find that flexi wings would help to increase top speed.

[Crabbia]

Whilst the top speeds on the two tracks cannot be quanitatively compared the thing is tho the ferrari and BMW's performance have dropped dramatically in terms of thier placings with regard to top speed. Kubica and MS where leading the top of the top speed lists in silverstrone and now they nowhere at canada. I know its different tracks and different abient conditions but the drop in performance relative to thier competitors is so drastic as to warant speculation that the flexi-wings have been rendered ineffective thanks to Charlie Whitings intervention.

Ofcourse it may just be tyres, as ferrari themselves have said... it may be too cold for the tyres as bridgestone have suggested.... or that ferrari was getting better drive out of the corners at silverstone which is a far more flowing, fast corner track (well atleast the middle sector is).... or that they're intentionally sandbagging as alonso seems to think...

to early to tell yet IMO.

[Crabbia]

In the second free sat prac ferrari topped the top speed lists again. don't think the flexi wing alterations had much effect. or is it that they werent there to begin with.

Apparently there was a dossier of evidence against ferrari with regards to flexi wings that included sound analysis that showed that at high speed the engine revs to 'jump' up by 200 revs.

I've got a theory....
what if Ferrari has mapped their engine in such a way that on the straights on some circuits the engine pushes out it's max power (adding these 200 revs) at the end of the straight for a short 2 or three second burst. This would be to the detriment of reliability, but the risk maginalised since it is only using that max power for those little spurts. this could be controlled in a similar way as when the car adjusts its suspension and TC settings when entering a corner for that specific corner.

this would explain why rival teams hear a horsepower jump towards the end of straights.

[i70q7m7ghw]

Bit of a long shot theory.... Maybe the wing just flexes in a way other than closing slot gap. Maybe they have a superior aero package??? Maybe their front wing flexes as well??? Or maybe that jump in revs is just the driver using the "overtake" or rev limit button for extra revs....