More flexi wings

[Some Gump]

Watching fp1 on record.. On board with the red bull, that front wing top element is deflecting what must be a clear inch under load. Not the main plane this time - just the top element(s).

Now i appreciate that nothing is infinitely stiff - but IMO it's obviously engineered to do that - what does PH think? Clever, or 2 fingers to the "spirit" of the rules?

[andyps]

Some Gump said:

Watching fp1 on record.. On board with the red bull, that front wing top element is deflecting what must be a clear inch under load. Not the main plane this time - just the top element(s).

Now i appreciate that nothing is infinitely stiff - but IMO it's obviously engineered to do that - what does PH think? Clever, or 2 fingers to the "spirit" of the rules?

Both?

[glazbagun]

I'm not sure I have a problem with it. So long as set points don't change like, say, the crash structure or cockpit height or nose, whats the problem with letting teams pour money into clever flexible wings, etc.

The fuel flow thing last year was more blatant cheating IMO.

[Some Gump]

I'm not necessarily against it, but there is a history if "movable aerodynamic device". This is what they used ti muller Benetton's TMD - an internal, sprung thing out of the air stream.

That footage was blatent - an external, sprung thing in the airflow. If it wasn't a (passive) moveable aerodynamic device, i don't know what is...

[PhillipM]

Bit difficult to police when the entire thing is flexing without an obvious mechanism though.

[thegreenhell]

Some Gump said:

Clever, or 2 fingers to the "spirit" of the rules?

What is the spirit of the rules? Is there a rule about staying within the spirit of rules?

The wing is designed to pass the speciifc deflection tests set by the FIA. It is up to the FIA rulemakers to design rules that can be measured and enforced. It is up to the teams to design something that passes those tests. The rulemakers will always be one step behind.

[lambosagogo]

thegreenhell said:

What is the spirit of the rules? Is there a rule about staying within the spirit of rules?

At the risk of bringing in another PH hot topic, it's like the tax avoidance / evasion stuff isn't it? FIA write the rules and the teams look for wriggle room to avoid the ones that are detrimental to the performance of their car. Their engineers and legal advisors are in a battle with the FIAs equivalents. If they break one and hide the fact (as has happened before) then they are in breach but they're fine up until that point despite what FIA may think of it all. Cue hasty rewrite or "clarification" of the ruleset that may in turn open up another potential wriggle.