2011 Prototypes to get hit with the ugly stick

[Parsnip]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/84736

Read this and had my fingers crossed it didn't mean a stupid sail between the roll hoop and rear wing as is the trend with F1. From reading the actual magazine and the photoshops of a 908 and R15 with the fin, it appears that is exactly what it means - really, really ugly looking cars.

Why ruin the way LMP cars look? What would be wrong with a wing that flips up when needed a la Nascar? I'm all for safety and I found Ortelli's Monza crash as horrible to watch as anyone else, but it is this really necessary?

[webby74]

certainly does spoil the lines of the lmp cars, as you say there must be another way enhance the safety without making the cars look so ugly.

[jbcalvin]

After Webber getting VERY airborne this weekend in Valencia, will this mean a re-think....

[Nick M]

jbcalvin said:

After Webber getting VERY airborne this weekend in Valencia, will this mean a re-think....

The aero of single seaters and prototypes is quite different, and these 'fins' are designed to try and stall the car if it goes sideways so it doesn't flip and roll.

Webber's flips (he's done a few in his time...) were all straight 'end for end' ones, yesterday's when he hit the car in front and the one at the Mulsanne hump was when air got underneath an already unstable car.

Fins aren't going to prevent those situations, but LMP cars have other measures, such as the louvres and vents in the front wheel arches, which are designed to try and minimise those situations, and were largely introduced following such accidents as the Mercs doing their back-flips at Le Mans and the Porsche at Petit Le Mans.