F1technical.net

[EDF]Fx wrote:English is not my mother tongue so maybe I have missunderstood something in your posts but they sure look contradictory to me.

Same here so no worries

What I meant to say is that apart from FIA regualtions FIA WMC including stewards on races also act as jury. So if by default FIA statute both of them can make decisions that are based on opinion and not on measurements, timing etc. than I don't see how can that be brought to trial. I'm not lawyer but it looks a bit messed up.

Didn't stop Paul Stoddart getting a court writ issued against the FIA in 2004 did it?

Probably it’s worth noticing that Ferrari didn’t change the wing design, simply added a fairing that covers the gap hence eliminates an, although minimal, disturbance to airflow; that’s a modification that very likely, almost surely actually, they would have adopted anyway.
The wing flexes in exactly the same way as before just like all the other cars wings do.

miqi23 wrote: Every one have been complaning about Ferrari's front wing that its flexing etc etc. I also saw it on TV as well, but I am wondering how is that particular flexing motion seen on TV is giving Ferrari an advantage?

According to Frank Dernie : “that whole story about Ferrari flexing wing is an absurdity, do you know what kind of advantage it gives ? Zero, I’m surprised there are around here very good technical directors thinking otherwise”.
Remember we are talking about a flexing of few mm of an endplate that is distant, from the ground, 150 mm from reference plane + 10 mm skid block + ride height. Probably it was a noticeable advantage till 2000 when the wing was 50 mm from reference plane.

That about the movement seen on the Ferrari wing. The one seen on the Renault is a totally different matter and it gives an indubitable advantage, not because of drag (total drag isn’t very influenced by FW angle) but because modifies the DF distribution front / rear hence the margin of stability and drivers are very sensitive to that. Obviously at low speed you’d like to have a smaller margin of stability to fight understeer but that would kill high speed stability so you have to find a compromise. With a flexing flap the problem is reduced.

That whole story is the typical case of people seeing a tiny wood particle in somebody else eyes and not noticing the beam in their own.

Points well taken Reca. The whole problem is that the camera showed this to the whole world, and we saw something funny on a Ferrari. Not illegal under the rules, just unusual enough to catch a lot of attention.

Melbourne:



Move along folks, nothing to see here

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Is that red string so that the top wing plates dont move at all.

They look like sensor cables to me... Either temp or pressure or something similar.

If Ferrari are running a "cable" inside the upper winglet, it may be superior use of engineering. If the ends of the cables are fastened securely, and under tension, they could add a lot of support for the wing structure, and contribute to it's resistance to bending down. If so, then the interior of the lower wing could be made lighter and with less materials. Traditionally, the lower front wing element supported all the loads. But if a cable was used on the upper element, it could relieve the lower wing from some of it's structural duties.
Here's a bit of speculation going even further. If the cable ran uninterrupted from end to end, it would also be exposed to long term heat. Some teams run holes in the nose for cooling purposes, the only use I have seen in a Ferrari was an intake behind the suspension pickups, on top of the chassis. For some reason, they chose not to ventilate the interior of the detachable nose structure. With the power steering and braking cylinders and such, there has to be some heat accumulation as the car progresses through the race. If that cable had properties that allowed a lot of expansion under elevated temperatures, it would allow the front wing structure to sag more and more, as the race progressed. During tech inspection, that piece would be a lot cooler, and under scrutiny it would hold up the front wing within the rules and tests applied to it.
The first part of my post I'm reasonably certain of. As far as using heat within the detachable nose structure to contribute to a lower wing, that is pure speculation, on my part.

A cable no matter how tightly tensioned, would not be able to support the wing in the way you describe.

I agree, that cable is not likely to be under tension. Mainly because it's not really a cable but a wire for a sensor. Scarbs went into some detail about this infamous wire in his Autosports column.

Has everyone gone mad, a cable to support the wing..!
its only a piece of wire to the tyre temp sensor on the endplate...

End of story
No conspiracy
No illegallity

ROTFLMAO

I've looked at the onboard footage from Melb and the Ferrari wing is still moving. I'm over really caring about it though. In the same race I saw the Renault and Williams wings moving. Last race it was McLaren's wing too. If they're all doing it and it is passing scrutineering then what's the fuss about?

Scarbs