New overtaking aero rules

[Steven Roy]

http://f1.automoto365.com/news/controller.php?lang=en&theme=default&team_id=0&month=10&year=2007&nextMode=GpNewsForm&news_id=28599

The technical directors agreed to proposals which are as follows:
- Front wing width increased to 180 instead of 140 cm.
- Front wing height decreased to 7.5 instead of 15 cm.
- The middle section over a width of 40 cm has to be a standard part.
- The driver may adjust the front wing flaps from the cockpit twice a lap by an angle of a maximum 6 degrees.
- Rear wing width 75 instead of 100 cm
- Rear wing height 95 instead of 80 cm.

The diffusor then starts from the centre of the rear axle rather than from the front end of the rear wheels. It may raise to 17.5 instead of 12.5 cm. The bodywork has to be clean. That means no barge boards, no winglets, no chimneys, no flipups.

Windtunnel research has shown that with the new rules the overall downforce loss will be 50 percent compared to the 2006 aero. If you follow another car within half a car length you will only lose 25 instead of 46 percent of the downforce and the balance shift will be 1 percent to the front rather than 4 percent to the back as it is now…sounds good.

I have to say I am utterly unimpressed with these rules.  They should just have gone into a room and played computer racing if that is the best they can come up with.

"A driver can adjust his wing twice a lap."  
Call me a cynic but I can just see the results from the last race of the season being appealed because someone made a third alteration in a lap but it will be a grey area because he was only 10 metres from the next lap.  This is stupid.

Apart from anything else it gives the driver being overtaken the advantage.  It is no different than a push to pass button.  Nothing to do with skill.  The rules should be written to give advantage to the more skillful drivers.  Rules like this just level the playing field.

Just how exactly is a wider front wing closer to the ground going to help anything.  A simple examination of the history of the sport shows that as front wings became bigger and closer to the ground overtaking became more difficult.

"The bodywork has to be clean"  
That has to be the vaguest rule in the history of the sport.  How do you define that.  Are we going to have appeals every time someone adds a complex curve to their body work?

"If you follow another car within half a length you will lose 25% of your downforce"
So how exactly are you supposed to follow another car through a corner if you have 25% less downforce than he has.  That does not include any benefit the car in front gains from having a following car deal with turbulent air that would be behind it.

I would assume the 25% is if one car follows another on a straight so no doubt on a bend the penalty will be greater.

Do we have any aerodynamic experts on the forum who could give an assessment of the impact of these measures?

[Alianora La Canta]

I'm suspicious simply because the FIA has not put the rules on its own site yet, nor has it directly given them to any site I would consider reputable.

[Scott]

No barge boards, flips, winglets or chimneys??  That's pretty drastic.  Maybe they should just take a Formula Ford and throw in a V8 and be done with the whole aero business.  That should save money, eh Max??

Impeach Max!!  Now!!  Get the moron out of the FIA!

[romephius]

I completely agree Scotty..... and as usual Ali, you are a voice of reason.

Good call all

Rom 

[Alianora La Canta]

I'd go so far as to say that with 72 hours having gone since the decision was made, and no update to the FIA's official rules on its own site, that I suspect that the rules being mooted here are not the ones that were agreed three days ago. And that the real ones are under wraps for a good reason (well, good to the FIA, not necessarily to us).