Adjustable rear wing - Where do you stand?

[airportparking]

There seems to be quite an uproar on the sites of certain blogs regarding this, with the majority of fans saying they don’t like the idea of making F1 artificial etc etc, and others wanting to give it a chance.

Personally I am in the give it a chance camp, after all it was the fans who were complaining that there wasn’t enough over taking in the first place after all!

Edited by airportparking on Friday 18th March 10:43

[Eric Mc]

What aspects of F1 do they consider to be "natural".

We had adjustable wings before, you know (1968 and early 1969).

[joewilliams]

I think it's the complexity of the rules (and the knowledge that they'll probably be tweaked) that people find off putting.

I'd like to give it a chance.

[neverwastetime]

I'm in the why does it have to be confined to one specific area of the track (for the race)!?

There is a danger of overtaking becoming sterile and predictable, why risk a high speed last second death defying overtake
when you could just wait a couple of corners and wings to neutral kers on and drive straight past.

Give Lewis use everywhere and sit back and enjoy

"comments based on there being no massive safety issue with the systems"

[Rude-boy]

airportparking said:

There seems to be quite an uproar...

People don't like change and see it as artificial.

I say suck it and see, although I would rather it was free to use upto a maximum of 50% of the race distance.

[The Black Flash]

Rude-boy said:

People don't like change and see it as artificial.

I think the artificial bit is the whole rules surrounding its use. Only at this place, only when 1 second behind, computer controlled, blah blah blah. Like some sort of mario kart power up.

If it was just a wing controlled by the driver, or even automatically based on speed etc, I doubt anyone would mind nearly as much.

[fatboy69]

Dont like them at all - adds to the 'fakeness' these days which willonly get worse if Bernie gets his way with this stupid 'artificial rain showers' crap that he wants to use.

Getting like the miming on X-Factor these days.....

I dont see how these ridiculous items will assist overtaking or increase the spectacle of racing. I might be proved wrong although, somehow, i dont think i will be.

[P924]

The Black Flash said:

I think the artificial bit is the whole rules surrounding its use. Only at this place, only when 1 second behind, computer controlled, blah blah blah. Like some sort of mario kart power up.

If it was just a wing controlled by the driver, or even automatically based on speed etc, I doubt anyone would mind nearly as much.

This sums up my view compleytely.

Thanks Black Flash.

[24lemons]

So we're supposed to be trying to attract new fans and we have what is, on the face of it a simple idea to reduce drag and improve overtaking. Except it isnt simple. The driver can only use it in certain places and only when he's within 2 seconds of the car in front and when there's an 'R' in the month and the moons of Jupiter align with the gnomes in Mrs Charlie Whiting's garden... It was bad enough trying to explain the fuel credit system from a few years back.

IMO, If they want to have moveable wings fine. If you want to limit their use, restrict them to x number per lap but whatever they do KEEP THE FANS INFORMED and dont alienate them with over-complicated rules! I'd like to know when the wing is used or KERS as well. When KERS was last in F1, you'd only know where and when it was used if the director chose to show us the graphic. The rest was guesswork and as for the moveable front wing last year, I forgot they even had it for all it was mentioned.

Here's a thought. If, say the driver was allowed to move his wing 5 times a lap, why not have 5 lights on the car (Le Mans style) to tell us when it's being used and how many goes he has left? It wouldnt be rocket surgery to implement that shirley?

I'll concede that from the videos I've seen it does look like we'll be able to see the wing moving which will help but I do feel that it's over-complicated regulation will just turn casual viewers off.

[SamHH]

Eric Mc said:

What aspects of F1 do they consider to be "natural".

We had adjustable wings before, you know (1968 and early 1969).

And 2009 and 2010.

[paulrockliffe]

I'm not sure casual viewers will care one way or another.

The front wings weren't being used for overtaking, but to balance handling as the fuel load changed, etc, so it wasn't really important to know how it was set, similar to knowing the fuel maps etc really.

The rear wing thing has to be artificial to work as intended; what's the point in it if the car you're trying to overtake can use it at the same time to defend the move? The point is to overcome the aero wake.

Just let's see how it pans out before judging it yeah?

[Gillet]

As said above I'm all for more overtaking, but its the way its being done, apparently on some circuits like Australia there will be just 1 place it can be used, which is pointless, just let the drivers get on with and use the bloody thing.

Also, I don't need anything "added" to the spectacle of F1, I've been a fan for 20 years, I'm not going to stop anytime soon, unless of course they continue to make these stupid rules to try and attract new fans.

[The Black Flash]

paulrockliffe said:

I'm not sure casual viewers will care one way or another.

The front wings weren't being used for overtaking, but to balance handling as the fuel load changed, etc, so it wasn't really important to know how it was set, similar to knowing the fuel maps etc really.

The rear wing thing has to be artificial to work as intended; what's the point in it if the car you're trying to overtake can use it at the same time to defend the move? The point is to overcome the aero wake.

Just let's see how it pans out before judging it yeah?

So we could either:
a) make the wing smaller, standard, or remove it altogether
OR
b) make it movable, under computer control, activated via race control and frickin' laaazeers to work out how far away the car in front is, and have to invent a shedload of new rules, which viewers wont understand, and which some clever engineer will immediately start working around anyway.

K.I.S.S.

[defblade]

The Black Flash said:

and have to invent a shedload of new rules, which viewers wont understand, and which....

.....will be changed (possibly several times during each race) to suit Ferrari best