Flexible wings controversy 2010

[marcush.]

Watch the pole lap from Vettel - keep an eye on the front wing upper cascades and the endplate and you can see them clearly flex downwards under load - speed and flex back up under braking. It's very noticeable before the hairpin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlvA2UdXVEY

I believe what we are seeing in that video is the suspension uncompressing after braking.

The only reference there is in terms of the end plates is by using the suspension arms. We know that a car will compress under aero load which would lower the body and raise the suspension arms and when the aero load is off the bod raises and the suspension arms lower.

put the cursor on the wing and watch how it moves vs the cursor..You can see the camera is a bit loose as it moves sideways under cornering loads but it is very apparent that only the wing bends up as the speed goes down..whereas if you look at the nosecone or anything other ,there is no movement.

[marcush.]

we could not make the wings any stiffer...

maybe it has something to do where and how the testing load is applied not how much...

or in Alonsos words :this is ridiculous...

but you could see that a long time coming ...it is very obvious that some wings are
superstiff (Mercedes) and others almost act as airpumps...(Redbull)....
I don´t think Newey is allowing the part to have his own life just out of negligence..??

[raymondu999]

From the RB6 thread:

Darren Heath ... bendy bendy:

[Aryoh]

In German GP in the race you could see Weber front wing move up and down, there is about 30 second shot, under braking wing go up, and under acceleration wing go down. I could only see that on the Red Bull car.
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2010/07/27/f ... iew-video/

[ringo]

It may not only be a matter of stiffness, but a matter of where most of the down-force is distributed.
This cluster of winglets on the extremities of the wing are placed there for a reason, to maximize bending moment arm.
The winglets are also supported by a strut which is seated on the narrower strip of the wing profile.
The redbull wing is also increasingly cambered as it goes to the endplate, showing that their intention is make the downforce as far away from the standard central section as possible.

Mclaren now, their winglets span the wing halves, and have a more uniform distribution of the downforce, so there is less bending. Their winglets are also not as aggressive and are more focused at handling flow going downstream than making raw downforce.

I think the rigidity tests should be posted. Maybe it is easier to pin point what redbull is doing if we read how far the tests go to ensure rigidity.

[tok-tokkie]

Quite a while ago there was similar video of the rear upper wing also deflecting similarly. That was when we were discussing the 'variable ride height'.

[Remote_Access]

Great pics feynman. No wonder McLaren and others are convinced. Surely the deflection tests would be enough to pick up displacement under such aero loads, but I guess not. Maybe RBR have something funny going on structurally that allows the wing to deflect under certain load conditions but not others. For example, deflecting with a torque applied as well as vertical load, but not under pure vertical load as applied in the test. Pure conjecture...

[Goran2812]

those wings look like they're about to snap in little million pieces! o.O
anyone have some ferrari footage?
red bull have really lowered it down... quite a bit... i wonder, does the wing touch the tarmac in a tight corner... hm...

[vall]

there is no controversy at all!!! The rules say how the flexibility should be tested and what are the allowed margins. If the measurements are within the allowed limits, this it.

[EL_XR6]

Do you people remember when Red Bull tested this back in December?
Clearly they're testing something here in regards to the front wing flexing.

[Erotamu]

Do you people remember when Red Bull tested this back in December?
Clearly they're testing something here in regards to the front wing flexing.

very good point

[strad]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[phezzy]

That cable assembly looks a bit too 'agricultural' to be used for measuring purposes...maybe it was meant to prevent the wing from flexing so that other teams would not pick up on the amount of flex...?

[forty-two]

Do you people remember when Red Bull tested this back in December?
Clearly they're testing something here in regards to the front wing flexing.

Wow, great find! No I don't remember seeing those pictures before.

That would tend to back up the idea!

[marcush.]

i well rememember it....cool you unearthed it again,thanks...

i think they had this deliberately flexi and restricted movement over speed with the (adjustable) strings. this way they had a clear understanding what would be the direction of development.(Ithink the tower in the middle contains a spring device to allow for elongation of the strings vs force)