Front wings?

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marmer
marmer
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Joined: 21 Apr 2017, 06:48

Front wings?

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Are they mirrored down the middle so both sides are the same. The reason i ask is that some tracks have very demanding corners on on side and often don't have the same stress on the other side. Wings always seem to be the same on both sides so they have differences and if they don't are they allowed. Almost all the high speed corners at Monza for example are right turns

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jjn9128
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Joined: 02 May 2017, 23:53

Re: Front wings?

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An interesting question. A quick (very) flick through the rules shows there are parts of the car which have to be symmetrical about the centreline - the chassis, nose pylons and parts of the engine cover and roll hoop, but no specific mention for the front wing.

That said I'm not sure there would be much of an advantage to an asymmetric setup - I don't even think Indycar use asymmetric aero on ovals (even though the suspension setup is). So much of the aero of the car is dependent on the wake of the front wing.

This setup sheet that scarbs posted way back shows only FW flap angle - I'd expect a left and right box if teams ran asymmetric setups.
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Vyssion
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Joined: 10 Jun 2012, 14:40

Re: Front wings?

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marmer wrote:
09 Jan 2018, 23:49
Are they mirrored down the middle so both sides are the same. The reason i ask is that some tracks have very demanding corners on on side and often don't have the same stress on the other side. Wings always seem to be the same on both sides so they have differences and if they don't are they allowed. Almost all the high speed corners at Monza for example are right turns
The drivers used to be given the ability to perform adjustments to the main flap of the front wing during the race from the cockpit. The idea was to be able to reduce downforce levels (and thus drag) at certain points which would then allow for closer racing. They could change the angle of the flap by something like 6 degrees and then do it twice a lap.

What ended up happening though, was that the flap was used to give the car optimal balance whilst cornering throughout the lap, rather than helping to overtake etc. So in 2011, it changed so that the driver can no longer do that, and it has to be manually adjusted in the pits.

As for the flaps on the wing, I know they can be adjusted, but I don't think teams are permitted to change those within the race. You see the one guy with a long thin allen key go to the front wing and give it a slight twist corresponding to the "number of points" of extra downforce that the driver is asking for. I think that one "point" of downforce was like 0.25 extra CL..... but I cant remember the exact metric... Teams never really use "actual" frontal area to back-calculate their CL from their wind tunnel testing etc (they use a nominal value since when you adjust a flap element, the area changes) and so yeah... I not too sure on the specific there.

I think that adjusting aerodynamics in such a way as you suggest for tracks (even for Monza) would be dangerous for the fast straights as there would be a noticeable drift to one side when you're trying to drive in a straight line. In NASCAR I know that the cars are designed asymmetrically from an aero point of view (look at their spoilers for an obvious thing).

As for asymetricality, within a cars set up, teams do employ an asymmetrical suspension set up via toe angle, camber, rake angle (via ride height front and rear), track width, etc. Here is a link to an imgur album of the Manor setups for some of 2016 for the races - I think it was found on one of their auctioned laptops.
https://imgur.com/a/WIKPB
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marmer
marmer
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Joined: 21 Apr 2017, 06:48

Re: Front wings?

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Thanks i didn't consider the effect on the straights that could cause a car to pull to one side thank you

Brenton
Brenton
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Joined: 17 Dec 2017, 07:28

Re: Front wings?

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I don't see why straight line pull would be a problem. In Nascar and other oval racing it's common to have to steer significantly off center to go straight.

marmer
marmer
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Joined: 21 Apr 2017, 06:48

Re: Front wings?

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Brenton wrote:I don't see why straight line pull would be a problem. In Nascar and other oval racing it's common to have to steer significantly off center to go straight.
You don't turn the other direction in those events. You might use less lock to go wider or more to tighten the turn but you don't actually turn the wheels past straight. Also it's controlled by the rack not the aero of the cars.
If used in F1 it would create progressively more pull as the car goes faster. So going down a straight would require constant adjusting of the steering wheel. In NASCAR they just straighten up to slightly past 12 the rest of the lock is just used for pits and avoiding accidents.