marmer wrote: ↑09 Jan 2018, 23:49
Are they mirrored down the middle so both sides are the same. The reason i ask is that some tracks have very demanding corners on on side and often don't have the same stress on the other side. Wings always seem to be the same on both sides so they have differences and if they don't are they allowed. Almost all the high speed corners at Monza for example are right turns
The drivers used to be given the ability to perform adjustments to the main flap of the front wing during the race from the cockpit. The idea was to be able to reduce downforce levels (and thus drag) at certain points which would then allow for closer racing. They could change the angle of the flap by something like 6 degrees and then do it twice a lap.
What ended up happening though, was that the flap was used to give the car optimal balance whilst cornering throughout the lap, rather than helping to overtake etc. So in 2011, it changed so that the driver can no longer do that, and it has to be manually adjusted in the pits.
As for the flaps on the wing, I know they can be adjusted, but I don't think teams are permitted to change those within the race. You see the one guy with a long thin allen key go to the front wing and give it a slight twist corresponding to the "number of points" of extra downforce that the driver is asking for. I think that one "point" of downforce was like 0.25 extra CL..... but I cant remember the exact metric... Teams never really use "actual" frontal area to back-calculate their CL from their wind tunnel testing etc (they use a nominal value since when you adjust a flap element, the area changes) and so yeah... I not too sure on the specific there.
I think that adjusting aerodynamics in such a way as you suggest for tracks (even for Monza) would be dangerous for the fast straights as there would be a noticeable drift to one side when you're trying to drive in a straight line. In NASCAR I know that the cars are designed asymmetrically from an aero point of view (look at their spoilers for an obvious thing).
As for asymetricality, within a cars set up, teams do employ an asymmetrical suspension set up via toe angle, camber, rake angle (via ride height front and rear), track width, etc. Here is a link to an imgur album of the Manor setups for some of 2016 for the races - I think it was found on one of their auctioned laptops.
https://imgur.com/a/WIKPB
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