Flexing wings and more reliability woes (Red Bull race review) (Video)
As at Silverstone, Red Bull’s front wings were the centre of attention before the race at Hockenheim – but for a very different reason.
The new front wings were observed to be flexing at high speeds, allowing parts of the wing to move closer to the ground and operate more efficiently.
| Sebastian Vettel | Mark Webber | |
| Qualifying position | 1 | 4 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q3) | 1’13.791 (-0.556) | 1’14.347 |
| Race position | 3 | 6 |
| Average race lap | 1’18.567 (-0.574) | 1’19.141 |
| Laps | 67/67 | 67/67 |
| Pit stops | 1 | 1 |
Sebastian Vettel
Started from his sixth pole position of the season and third in a row. But, just like at Silverstone, he didn’t so much as lead a lap of the race.
Vettel got away slowly and darted right in a fruitless attempt to keep Fernando Alonso behind, which ended up letting Felipe Massa through as well.
With the front runners setting a fast pace his team were able to bring him in early in an attempt to get past Alonso. But it didn’t work, and Vettel was seldom close to the Ferraris from that moment on.
Compare Sebastian Vettel’s form against his team mate in 2010
Mark Webber
The movement of Red Bull’s much-discussed ‘flexi-wing’ was clear to see on their cars during the race – and Vettel’s at Silverstone. The same movement was not apparent at Valencia.
Watch how the top of the endplates on Webber’s front wing slowly dip as he builds up speed on the straight, then quickly rise as he begins to decelerate:
The FIA tests wings to ensure they do not deflect excessively and had Red Bull’s wings not complied with those tests then they wouldn’t have been allowed to race them. The same goes for Ferrari who had a similar wing, though the degree of deflection was harder to spot on video.
In other words, the wings are legal to the letter of the law and if the FIA wishes to ban them it’ll have to change its rules to do so. In the meantime expect other teams to show up with their versions of the wing very soon.
If the flexi-wing shows one of Red Bull’s characteristics this year – aggressive development in the pursuit of better performance – Weber’s race was spoiled by their other defining trait: unreliability.
Webber was told by the team to leave a four-second gap to Jenson Button, who he was chasing, in order to keep his oil temperatures down.
He had led Button before the pit stops but lost time behind Nico Rosberg, allowing Button to get ahead of him.
Webber ended the race in sixth and the two Red Bull drivers are now level on championship points.
Compare Mark Webber’s form against his team mate in 2010
2010 German Grand Prix
- Ferrari face FIA World Motor Sport Council on team orders charge tomorrow
- Ferrari: “Lauda missed out on a fine opportunity to keep his mouth shut”
- Lauda: Ferrari will get a pasting from WMSC
- From the stands: Tommy B and Katy watch the German GP at Hockenheim
- Technical review: German and Hungarian Grands Prix
- From the stands: Nikolai Vogler watches two races in one week
- “I am much quicker than Felipe” – how Alonso urged Ferrari to use team orders
- F1 fans slam rigged German Grand Prix
- 2010 German Grand Prix – the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
- Who was the best driver of the German Grand Prix weekend? (Poll)
Image (C) Red Bull/Getty images
hawkfist said on 27th July 2010, 0:46
Not as bad as Button’s with that superduper wing camera he had on this weekend ;)
Spectator said on 27th July 2010, 21:08
at least at the european gp ferrari wings dont flex as much as red bull or mclaren maybe because it isnt that developed smaller bridge than mclarenswww.youtube.com/watch?v=iPIFZ2oxPRs
SoLiD said on 27th July 2010, 0:49
Wow that is very very clear. You see it flex really hard.
Never tought it could be this hard.
Kester said on 27th July 2010, 10:01
It’s not as obvious as it seems. The suspension wishbones also have some travel in a braking zone which at first glance looks like the wing flexes a lot more than it does.
Check the wishbones against the mirrors, and also put your mouse cursor over the endplate, and you’ll notice it doesn’t move that much.
Spectator said on 27th July 2010, 21:03
im quite surprised that no one noticed that red bull wings flex since the 1st gp of last year the first spec front wing of the rb5 which was copied by some teams like mclaren and hrt flexing is very common i reckon that every team has designed their wings to flex as much as permited by the fia we simply dont pay much attention former f1 drivers say that sometimes that flex effect on the wings looks worse because the car is getting lower with speed
RedBull gives you wings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI_tnTZfpn8
silverstone 2009 after the hangar straight is very visible
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Cv_JqN5vg
on the braking points 09 turkey
Mclaren tv pod isnt very clear but with some attention you can see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_z2fWNMcmE
Ferrari the wing doesnt flex but the nose drops with speed as expected
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IURF4DJVQk
Force india very slight movement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paeppQlkAag
nelly said on 28th July 2010, 18:16
Well they were doing something in December testing at the end of 09…
http://static.f1hirek.hu//w1000/93525941_10_1000.jpg
http://www.motorsport.com/photos/popup.asp?N=89&I=f1/2009/tes/f1-2009-tes-xp-1930.jpg&FS=F1&SN=1_64.235.98.12:03226
Unless teams always use these or the wires are for something different?
Spectator said on 30th July 2010, 3:41
nice pics i think it is a clear proof that redbull was concerned about the wings movement
Calum said on 27th July 2010, 0:49
Maybe redbull has a flexifloor too. This would be good for te rear of the car when accompanied with EBD and DDD. Flexifloor was used by Ferrari in 2007 so has been seen in f1 before but I’m not 100% if it’s even legal nowadays…
Johnny Legg said on 27th July 2010, 1:04
i’m wondering if its not the wing thats flexing. maybe the section of nose cone is the part that dose the flexing, like the flexi floor?
or maybe some sort of clever fixing on the nose that allowed a bit of flex: remember Vettel’s fancy new wing falling of in practice at silverstone? looked a bit odd
Mike said on 27th July 2010, 1:52
Maybe it’s not the wing or nose cone that flexes, maybe it’s the joiner between the nose and chassis, but I’m not sure that would work.
John H said on 27th July 2010, 1:17
Wasn’t it used at Melbourne for Kimi’s win and then banned from then on? So I’m guessing a flexi-floor is not legal.
Craig Sipple said on 27th July 2010, 7:08
The flexi wing is illeagle but Red Bull are running it. Why not the floor.
Lee said on 27th July 2010, 12:48
@Calum,
Ferris flexifloor was not legal in 2007. It was the whole reason that Stepney decided to leak the info to Maclaren. I am pretty sure Ferrari got away scott free with it though apart from being ordered to take it off for subsequent races. Apparently there were aspects of the design that were specifically designed to hide the function from the FIA. This however was back when Ferrari and the FIA were lovers, I am not sure they would get away so lightly this season.
I am baffled by the wing decision though unless there is allowance for a certain amount of natural flex from high loading.
Michael Griffin said on 27th July 2010, 0:51
The pressure on that front wing, with that flexing, could have had something to do with the mounting failure at Silverstone.
US_Peter (@us_peter) said on 27th July 2010, 0:53
I doubt it, since it was the mounting hardware that connects the nose to the chassis that failed. Once they swapped out the hardware there were no more problems.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 27th July 2010, 1:16
As US_Peter says, the Silverstone failure was because the new nose hadn’t been fitted to the car properly.
BasCB (@bascb) said on 27th July 2010, 17:15
Maybe Red Bull tried out a new fitting, that allows the nose to dip down under load? ;-)
US_Peter (@us_peter) said on 27th July 2010, 0:51
That’s some impressive engineering if they can make it flex enough for a performance gain, but not enough that it would be illegal.
SoLiD said on 27th July 2010, 0:57
not enough to be illegal… well they know how it’s tested and work around that.
Now we know why Newey wanted it to be raced so hard.
Josh1999.94 said on 27th July 2010, 1:04
I’m not convinced by this video alone. I’m always watching onboard footage of cars and you can see the wings going down as the cars accelerate, and then go up again as they brake. That’s just downforce. I’m not denying that their wings do flex, I’m just saying I don’t think this video is the best evidence.
Josh1999.94 said on 27th July 2010, 1:07
Hmm, actually, watching it again, it is as though it is slanting to one side, and it is wobbling around more than it does with just downforce. I’m more convinced now…
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 27th July 2010, 1:16
As I said in the article, compare it to an onboard video from Valencia and the difference is clear to see.
Bernard said on 27th July 2010, 1:44
I have been banging on about the RB6 wing flex since as far back as the Chinese grand prix. I even made an animated gif to highlight the extent of it at the time, for thoes interested here it is:
RB6 china
The same amount of flex has also been observed at several GP’s since.
The fundimentals of this design was being clearly tested during the winter as shown here with the load sensors:
here and here.
:)
Alex Bkk said on 27th July 2010, 2:22
Nice work Bernard, you can clearly see from the red reference lines just how much that wing is flexing.
It would be lovely to be able to measure it.
f1yankee said on 27th July 2010, 4:43
nicey done. it appears the range of movement has increased since china.
US_Peter (@us_peter) said on 27th July 2010, 7:04
Great sluthing! I wonder if that was what they were testing. The second picture kind of gives me the impression that they may have been testing the torsional flex of the front wing.
Bernard said on 27th July 2010, 16:06
Here is the German grand prix version:
RB6 Germany
I chose the lap with the telemetry in order to dispel the theory that the car is under braking or similar irrelevancies. :)
Also, as noted by Alex the red lines (and arrows in this image) are to prove that the wing is moving relative to the monocoque.
Welshslider said on 28th July 2010, 15:10
Bernard,
It would be really interesting to see if you do another of those GIFs from another team to see if they have the same flexibilty. All wings have some flex but is it as much as the Red Bulls?
Bernard said on 28th July 2010, 22:00
Here are a couple showing McLaren and Ferrari:
MP4-25 Great Britain
F10 Europe (Valencia)
Bernard said on 27th July 2010, 16:54
I’ve now also added Valencia to the mix:
RB6 Europe (Valencia)
BasCB (@bascb) said on 27th July 2010, 17:21
Nice comparisons Bernard.
It seems the tips of the wing really duck down under load, although part of the difference in height compared with the tyres is due to load on the suspension (look at the position of the wishbones, straight/down) it is very large.
Pigloo said on 28th July 2010, 12:24
Comparing to the tyres is not a good idea hence why the images compare the flex to the monocoque as shown by the red lines.
The tyres seem to gain diameter at speed probably due to the centrifugal forces exerted on them.
Bien said on 27th July 2010, 3:06
There was a video of this at the beginning of the season that was pointed out at a forum I visit often. I think the footage was taken during Malaysia or China but it certainly showed this same effect.
Butler258 said on 27th July 2010, 6:05
If they are now equal on points, who will get priority with any upgrades if they screw it up like in gbr?
US_Peter (@us_peter) said on 27th July 2010, 7:06
Technically Webber still leads as he has 3 wins to Vettel’s 2, so if they find themselves with only 1 upgrade again it should go to Webber.
spanky the wonder monkey said on 27th July 2010, 10:20
but seb is the golden child…..
Hamish said on 27th July 2010, 8:08
I think Kudos must however go to Adrian Newey.
graigchq said on 27th July 2010, 8:36
yeah right on..
no other team is coming up with these developments themselves, but he is able to not only have the idea, but make it work well before any other team gets near. McLaren’s F-Duct being the only exception really. Everyone else is just copying him over the course of the season.
Guio Oblepias said on 27th July 2010, 9:08
you said that the wings weren’t doing flexing in Valencia, but that was where I first observed this. I was watching the onboard footage of one of the Red Bulls and I noticed that the wing was dipping on the straights. I thought it was really cool but assumed that it was normal for the wings to do that at high speeds. their wings at Germany do dip a little lower though, and look quite wobbly.
Patrickl said on 27th July 2010, 11:47
The Red Bull front wing flex was observed early on in the season.
I saw it myself too when looking at comparisons to check the ride height. It was pretty obvious that at speed the winglets on the Red Bull front wings disappeared from the on-board camera view.
Calum said on 27th July 2010, 9:51
While newer is an excellant designer, he is just the head of a whole team of designers. I think it’s unfair that he is always the one given credit for the success of the RB6 when there are at least another 30 people on the job!
Red Andy said on 27th July 2010, 10:15
I have heard that the front wing is flexing only in an area where, at the moment, there are no deflection tests carried out.
Very clever, but I expect the FIA will quickly shift the goalposts (as they did with Ferrari’s floor) to stop this loophole being exploited.
matt90 said on 27th July 2010, 11:48
I don’t understand properly the benefit of this wing. I assumed it gave extra downforce, as if it flexes in a way which makes it more efficient as speed builds I thought that would give downforce and drag at the wrong time when you want straight line speed. And if the wing coming closer to the ground and becoming more efficient actually reduces downforce and drag, then it has not been of much benefit as McLaren still have a massive straight-line speed advantage. Unless having it flex in the straights means they can increase the wing for cornering without harming their straight-line performance. Can somebody please explain how/why the flexi wing works? (I also assumed that the wing woud have to angle slightly as it flexed in a way which would increase wing angle and drag rather than reduce it)
LuvinF1 said on 27th July 2010, 23:13
I believe you are right – the flexible front wing is detrimental to straight line speed but highly advantageous for high-speed cornering. But you need to look at the combination of tools available to the drivers – f-duct, exhaust blown diffuser, engine mapping, adjustable flap, flexible front wings, and probably a myriad of other things still unknown to us – when used in different combinations produce different results.