F1technical.net

Are you a journo or what?
There's a bit of discrepancy between the thread title and the contents

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/form ... 08090.html

AMuS report that the initial allowance point for the rear wing activation will be 600 m before the end of the main straight. This will be tested and adjustments be made as needed.

I think I have an idea of physically what the ARW will look like, but have any drawings been published anywhere which give any clues?

It's going to be interesting to see if Newey's comments about overtaking becoming too easy are proved right. Excessive overtaking will be as boring as no overtaking.

What's needed is a situation where overtaking is possible but not guaranteed. If we just see the cars continually swapping places at the end of the "approved straight" then it'll be as boring as NASCAR...

To all those who have said that the idea of the ARW is "artificial", it just occurred to me that MOTOR RACING itself is artificial for so many other reasons, why pick on this new innovation?

Racing in any form, it could be argued is a development from a predator chasing it's prey. Well, I don't know about you guys but I can't remember ever seeing a big cat chasing down a gazelle where both the Lion and the Gazelle obediently run round and round in circles going over the same bit of ground over and over while obeying any flagged instructions from the Wildebeest marshalls?

You could equally argue that having circuits which encourage overtaking at particular corners is artificial!

So I think that particular complaint about this idea is somewhat limp.

forty-two wrote:To all those who have said that the idea of the ARW is "artificial", it just occurred to me that MOTOR RACING itself is artificial for so many other reasons, why pick on this new innovation?

The complaint is because it's something that specifically boosts the performance of one car over the other, not through driver skill or technical advancement but by giving a performance boost to one driver in favour of another. That is why it is deemed artificial, as in it's artificially creating a performance differential between two cars, not on merit but based on track position. Like Bernies stupid short cut idea a couple of years back this kind of solution belongs in Mario Kart and not F1.

Edit: To answer your other points about making circuits overtaking friendly being just as artificial, and the like, the major difference is that the circuit is the same for all drivers at all times. The adjustable rear wing is just like allowing a driver to cut a chicane if he is close enough to the car in front whilst mandating that the lead car must still go round that chicane. Anything that favours one specific car or driver over another based on track position is artificial. Trying to adjust the rules so that the cars and tracks are conducive to overtaking is not artificial in that sense as it does not specifically advantage one car over another, merely aiming to allow a faster car to challenge a slower car for grid position and leaving it up to the drivers to either overtake or defend.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-awa6bnoN0k[/youtube]
Shoddy indeed but good to see peoples ideas, I'd expect to see a few rods around the front though, teams could use them in smart ways. It must come in a burst or snapping effect when engaged as drivers can't waste a second on it to fully engage.

forty-two wrote:I think I have an idea of physically what the ARW will look like, but have any drawings been published anywhere which give any clues?

Pascal Vasselon explains the ARW (graphics included):
http://www.auto123.com/en/racing-news/o ... tid=127002

On one hand yes it is artificial, on the other hand cars used to be able to follow other cars closely as they weren't so aero dependent. In a way the ARW will make cars more like they used to be.

I'm kind of on the fence with one, I'll have to wait and see how it effects the racing.

I would just hate for a title to hinge (pardon the pun) on the ARW.

One benefit will be a reduction in front runners being held up by backmarkers. Although one could argue that an ability to pass back markers is a requirement of a front runner.

That raises a valid question : will the rear wing activate for the purpose of lapping backmarkers?

Seeing as front runners are technically ahead of backmarkers, will the timing screens recongise when the gap to a backmarker drops under 1 second?

Personally, I hope not.

Giblet wrote:On one hand yes it is artificial, on the other hand cars used to be able to follow other cars closely as they weren't so aero dependent. In a way the ARW will make cars more like they used to be.

I'm kind of on the fence with one, I'll have to wait and see how it effects the racing.

I would just hate for a title to hinge (pardon the pun) on the ARW.

I really hope I'm proven wrong and the racing next year is amazing, but rather than introduce an artificial system to try and make the cars racing be like it used to be, I would prefer them to actually fix the aero on the cars so that they can race wheel to wheel like they used to.

It's downright hokey and in some ways may prove dangerous, with drivers having too much to concentrate on.

Technical

Since the wing flap is going to be allowed to be moving only after about halfway of the straight most of the cars will be about max speed -15kmph which will be in excess of 280kmph in most circuits. As the top flap is to be hinged on the top and lower end actuated, what will be the load on the wing flap? What will be the size of these hydraulic systems?

Will it be something this heavy?

Giblet wrote:On one hand yes it is artificial, on the other hand cars used to be able to follow other cars closely as they weren't so aero dependent. In a way the ARW will make cars more like they used to be.

I'm kind of on the fence with one, I'll have to wait and see how it effects the racing.

I would just hate for a title to hinge (pardon the pun) on the ARW.

In my opinion the only right solution would be to make the cars rely less on aerodynamics. For relevancy and close racing it would be better to reduce the amount of downforce to the levels of high performance road cars. This could be achieved by introduce an absolute limit on the amount of downforce to be generated. The design itself could be left fairly free.