F1 Front wings

[johnaachen]

How many times is a driver allowed to adjust his front wing per lap under the new regulations this year? Does anyone know whoch section they adjust and how they do it?

Cheers,

John

[Bongo Fury]

I think its once a lap, with a button on the steering wheel.

[zac510]

Once in one direction?

[SamHH]

It's twice per lap. I don't know what mechanism any of the teams will use, but I would imagine it'll be controlled via the steering wheel.

More information here:

http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public.nsf/E280B4702...

[dirty boy]

Won't it be brilliant when it's permanently driver adjustable....they'll have wireless steering wheels with tilt sensors, kind of like a PS3 control, it'll be like watching Hamilton playing Mario Kart on the Wii

[anonymous-user]

Twice per lap i.e one change and another change back. Max change that can be made is 6 degrees. It's the flap angle that changes, controlled by the driver with a button. A bit of a pointless rule IMHO, as it will not be used in the way intended i.e overtaking

[stifler]

And I thought this was going to be "which is the best and worst looking front wing on an f1 car ever?" Thread. Oh well. Jordan 191 best, march 701 "unicorn wing" worst.

[johnaachen]

uktrailmonster said:

Twice per lap i.e one change and another change back. Max change that can be made is 6 degrees. It's the flap angle that changes, controlled by the driver with a button. A bit of a pointless rule IMHO, as it will not be used in the way intended i.e overtaking

How do you think taht it will be used then? I thought that the idea behind it was that the driver behind would increase front wing angle to help avoid the understeer caused by the "wash" from the car in front this allowing them to get closer in the higher downforce corners where otherwise he would struggle? So procedure will be "push button for more wing", get closer behind car in front out of corner, "push button for boost" and then overtake! Easy:-)

[Eric Mc]

Hmmm - a rescinding of the age old "no moveable aerodynamic device" rule which has been in place since 1969.

[anonymous-user]

johnaachen said:

uktrailmonster said:

Twice per lap i.e one change and another change back. Max change that can be made is 6 degrees. It's the flap angle that changes, controlled by the driver with a button. A bit of a pointless rule IMHO, as it will not be used in the way intended i.e overtaking

How do you think taht it will be used then? I thought that the idea behind it was that the driver behind would increase front wing angle to help avoid the understeer caused by the "wash" from the car in front this allowing them to get closer in the higher downforce corners where otherwise he would struggle? So procedure will be "push button for more wing", get closer behind car in front out of corner, "push button for boost" and then overtake! Easy:-)

No, that was how the FIA intended it should be used. But it will just end up as an aero balance adjuster. That's not a bad thing for the race engineers and drivers, but a waste of time and money for everyone else.

[10 Pence Short]

I'll give the new front wings about half a season before they're changed due to safety reasons.

[paulrockliffe]

But the driver in front will just adjust his front wing too, he doesn't need the down force down the straight anyway.

Is it possible that 6 degrees of adjustment would cause a range of aerodynamic effects depending on front wing design, or is there not enough freedom in the regulations for that?

[SamHH]

According to Heidfeld and Kubica the adjustable wing won't be useful for overtaking:

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=44993

[stevesingo]

I can imagine in qualifying the wing settings will b e optimised, not for overtaking, but for fastest lap. An possibly in the races too.

Gimmick if you ask me.

Steve

[mattikake]

uktrailmonster said:

johnaachen said:

uktrailmonster said:

Twice per lap i.e one change and another change back. Max change that can be made is 6 degrees. It's the flap angle that changes, controlled by the driver with a button. A bit of a pointless rule IMHO, as it will not be used in the way intended i.e overtaking

How do you think taht it will be used then? I thought that the idea behind it was that the driver behind would increase front wing angle to help avoid the understeer caused by the "wash" from the car in front this allowing them to get closer in the higher downforce corners where otherwise he would struggle? So procedure will be "push button for more wing", get closer behind car in front out of corner, "push button for boost" and then overtake! Easy:-)

No, that was how the FIA intended it should be used. But it will just end up as an aero balance adjuster. That's not a bad thing for the race engineers and drivers, but a waste of time and money for everyone else.

Yeah. I reckon it'll end up being used as a counter for front tyre srcubbing and wear if following another car for a long time - say at Monaco. 2 adjustments per lap may well be detremental as the driver will have to adjust to a very different handling car.

The only way I see if being used in overtaking is into a corner before a long straight - add more wing angle before the corner or two, then take it off on the straight.

I'm not in favour of this idea at all. It's not 'natural' or in the spirit of racing IMO. I get the feeling the FIA have over-compensated with this, KERS and the front and rear wings. Hopefully adjustable wings and KERS will be dropped before 2010...

Edited by mattikake on Thursday 22 January 16:16

[skinny]

they've spent too much on kers to drop it. but adjustable wings shouldn't have cost too much and hopefully can get dropped fairly easily (along with another reduction in downforce )

[german tony]

Presumably the adjustable front wing would be set for minimum downforce at the start. Let's hope the lads remember to set it to maximum before the 1st corner eh?