The front wing is arguably the most important aero device on the car because it affects everything downstream of it. Not only does it produce downforce in its own right but it also affects the air flow to the floor and the rear wing. Thus, a well designed front wing can actually increase the downforce produced elsewhere and a poorly designed one can hamper other areas.Robbobnob wrote:As i understand, the front wing not only creates downforce, but also directs a-lot of air around the front tyres, which are a big source of drag, hence the increase in front wing size with the regulations. There fore actually stalling the front wing might cause more harm than benefit.
The endplates are important in cleaning up the front wheels but this also helps to maximise clean air to the leading edge of the floor of the sidepods.
Ross Brawn hinted at the importance of these things last year. Everyone was banging on about the diffuser and he stated that their performance was not all in the diffuser. They (and Red Bull) had involved endplates when the big boys still had simple ones. As others devloped the front endplates so they closed on Brawn/RB. An ex-F1 engineer friend of mine stated quite clearly that "McLaren need to sort out their front wing endplates" right at the beginning of last season. I'm amazed that it took them so long to do so - probably the rest of the car was so poor that it needed sorting first.
This year, much has been made of the RB6's flexi front wing; undoubtedly it makes more downforce but the design of the wing's upper bits will also be helping the floor to maximise downforce production.
The interaction of the flow from the front wing with the rest of the car is not to be underestimated. Stalling the front wing will affect everything else and I reckon is likely to cause massive drag increases overall unless if is very cleverly done.