Front wing width on F1 cars

[mistareno]

I've often wondered why the front wing on an F1 car doesn't go across the entire width of the car (infont of the wheels)

The wheels are an aerodynamic nighmare anyway, so placing a wing infront of them might allow the wing to also be used for better flow dynamics over the wheels. The wider wing would allow the use of a smaller wing cross section for the same downforce.

This would probably mean less drag and less airflow disruption from the front wing (smaller) - allowing better airflow across the rest of the car and rear wing.

Anyone know why the wing is narrow at the front?

[modbaraban]

regulations - should be somewhere in article 3

[manchild]

Wing is considered as a part of bodywork and by bodywork width is limited by FIA technical regulations to 1400mm if I'm not mistaken.

[mep]

More interresting is the question why they don't use the max span
which is allowed to use.
McLaren has a very big splitter mounted, on the outher edges, to
get downforce from the high pressure bladder in front of the tyres,
and with little air resistance due to the smal profile and
by the better airflow round the tyres.
Furthermore can the wing on the max span be disturbed by the air bladder
and does maybe not produce very much downforce.
http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/bild ... 1180288818


But wouldn't it produce more downforce to use the hole space
for wing span with little air-resistance penalty in Monaco?
They use this big splitters since last year and the compained last year
a lag of front grip. So what is better now?

I would say the version with the splitter has lower drag and is so more
efficent.
I think thats what mistareno whanted to ask.

[AeroGT3]

The region in front of the tire is rather high in pressure and not the ideal place to have a wing

[scarbs]

Wings are narrower than the regulation allow because of the obstruction of the front wheels. As the wing can be wider than the inside track of the front wheels, a wider wing will send its flow straight into the tyre, this is worsened when the wheels are turned. What you end up with the outer portion of wing creation lots of drag and disturbance around the front wheels. The disrupted the flow all the way to the back of the car. Teams have found that a better total aero effect is found by narrowing the wing at its trailing edge to route its wake in between the front wheels, this means the wing will have less potential to create maximum downforce due to its narrower span, but it will be more efficient overall as the flow from the wing is less disrupted. This practice started around 2001 when the front was raised50mm and again when it was raised in 2005 (iirc).

[RH1300S]

My understanding from what is written in various articles etc. is that the current regs make it very difficult to get enough rear downforce. So, if you pile on all the front D/F you can muster, the car will be unbalanced.

A lot of the effort at the front seems to be in getting the air to the rearward surfaces (that would include the splitter and side pods AFIK) as cleanly as possible.

[mistareno]

My understanding from what is written in various articles etc. is that the current regs make it very difficult to get enough rear downforce. So, if you pile on all the front D/F you can muster, the car will be unbalanced.

A lot of the effort at the front seems to be in getting the air to the rearward surfaces (that would include the splitter and side pods AFIK) as cleanly as possible.

Yes but if you can make the same downforce with less airflow disruption, then the rear wing can work more efficiently.

I was thinking more a modern interpretation of this old idea (don't take any notice of the car, it's jsut the first image that had the style of tyre diverters I was after)



As stated above, it may be impossible with current regs, but I would have thought that improving the flow over the wheels would be beneficial in creating laminar airflow over the rest of the car to the benefit of rear downforce.

[scarbs]

The rules demand a front wing that is too narrow to create the shape you were suggesting. The endplates cannot be widened to make them divert more air around the front tyre. Of course if they could then there could be an aero benefit, but thats exactly what the rules are there to prevent.
The footplate and coved shape along the bottom and rear of the endplate are designed to swirl the air around the inside face of the front wheel and fill in the void behind the wheel. To this extent the teams are already using the area allowed to improve the aero, moreover this couldnt be achieved if they used the maximum span alloweable uner the rules.