Ferrari had most to gain from adjustable rear wing in 2010

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Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Korea, 2010

The Ferrari drivers would have been able to us the adjustable rear wing more than any of their rivals had the device been allowed in 2010.

F1 Fanatic analysed how the new 2011 regulations would have worked last year to better understand the controversial rear wing rules.

Drivers will be able to adjust the angle of their rear wings to increase their straight-line speed in 2011. But, controversially, they will only be allowed to do so if they are within one second of another car.

The 2011 technical rules also prevent the drivers from adjusting their rear wings during the first two laps of the race, under safety car conditions and in the first two laps following a restart.

With all those caveats it’s hard to get an impression how often the wings might be used. The following data shows how many times each driver would have been able to activate their rear wing in 2010 had the new rules been in place.

Potential ARW activations in 2010 – drivers

This table shows how many times each driver could have activated their adjustable rear wing:

DriverPotential ARW activations
1Felipe Massa281
2Fernando Alonso263
3Robert Kubica225
4Nico Hulkenberg203
5Michael Schumacher201
5Kamui Kobayashi201
7Jaime Alguersuari200
8Mark Webber177
9Adrian Sutil173
10Lewis Hamilton172
10Vitaly Petrov172
12Vitantonio Liuzzi166
13Sebastian Vettel147
14Sebastien Buemi141
15Rubens Barrichello111
16Jenson Button105
17Nico Rosberg102
18Timo Glock95
19Heikki Kovalainen93
20Jarno Trulli68
21Pedro de la Rosa60
21Nick Heidfeld60
23Lucas di Grassi41
24Bruno Senna30
25Karun Chandhok15
26Sakon Yamamoto9
27Christian Klien0

There’s no reason to assume the adjustable rear wing rule was brought in specifically to help Ferrari, particularly as the plan was announced long before the end of the season.

However it’s clear the two Ferrari drivers found themselves stuck within one second of a rival more often than the others did last year.

It will come as no surprise to learn that the race where they would have used it most was Abu Dhabi. Fernando Alonso would have had 38 opportunities to use it, all of which coming while he was stuck behind Vitaly Petrov.

Felipe Massa would have had 47 chances to press the button, the most of any driver all season long. This was a 55-lap race, and the wing would have been unusable for five laps due to the safety car period at the start.

There are more interesting findings when you look at how the wing could have been used in particular races:

Potential ARW activations in 2010 – races

This table shows how many times adjustable rear wings could have been activated at each race in 2010:

RacePotential ARW activations
1Brazil339
2Turkey264
2Canada264
2Europe264
2Britain264
6Abu Dhabi252
7Italy220
8Singapore197
9Hungary183
10Germany170
11Australia167
12Spain164
13Monaco144
14Malaysia123
15Belgium122
16Japan119
17Bahrain110
18China92
19Korea53

The wing would have been used most often in Brazil, with 339 potential activations across all 24 drivers.

But in Korea it would only have been available 53 times, mainly because 24 of the 55 laps were run behind the safety car.

As the rule is designed to promote overtaking, you might expect last year’s infamously dull Bahrain Grand Prix to be one of the races where the wing could have been used the most. But that isn’t the case – with 110 potential activations it’s third from last on the list, the lowest of all the dry-weather races.

Another interesting case is the Singapore Grand Prix, where Sebastian Vettel spent the entire race trying to pass Alonso. Of the race’s 61 laps he was only close enough to use the ARW six times.

The ‘lap 3 cluster’

As the rules prevent use of the adjustable rear wing within the first two laps of the start of the race or following a safety car period, expect lots of drivers to be hitting the button after those lock-out periods pass.

On several occasions last year more than half of the field would have been able to use their ARWs at the start of lap three: 14 drivers at Interlagos and 13 at Silverstone, Hungaroring, Spa-Francorchamps and Monza.

Data for every race

This table shows how many times each driver could have activated their ARW at every race:

Race12345678910111213141516171819
Jenson Button4260270356201303016162
Lewis Hamilton14272775637100100000501320
Michael Schumacher234111180151318206715241340
Nico Rosberg0801165386810061160815
Sebastian Vettel10017102414017427152061000
Mark Webber202011200034021614371310025
Felipe Massa210231110520173712121740003647
Fernando Alonso02919601226262928130923001438
Rubens Barrichello271510111941210013061271
Nico Hulkenberg4001110121392718851437052415
Robert Kubica102122393843811126811034511
Vitaly Petrov305610811132241668131703189
Adrian Sutil421911011262215412477101099
Vitantonio Liuzzi179006220321214632300310
Sebastien Buemi16010051731151608332010464
Jaime Alguersuari10116252317243141305415106293
Jarno Trulli001011847000431060230
Heikki Kovalainen1071021351222423000210
Karun Chandhok00101011101
Bruno Senna000101535000504033
Pedro de la Rosa760002481346253
Kamui Kobayashi003032380434242050121231724
Timo Glock9000406811213452122026
Lucas di Grassi02101854020313100010
Christian Klien000
Sakon Yamamoto5003100
Nick Heidfeld12152220

Notes on the analysis

Article 3.18.2 of the 2011 Technical Regulations explains how the adjustable element of the rear wing may be used:

The adjustable bodywork may be activated by the driver at any time prior to the start of the race and, for the sole purpose of improving overtaking opportunities during the race, after the driver has completed a minimum of two laps after the race start or following a safety car period.

The driver may only activate the adjustable bodywork in the race when he has been notified via the control electronics (see Article 8.2) that it is enabled. It will only be enabled if the driver is less than one second behind another at any of the pre-determined positions around each circuit. The system will be disabled by the control electronics the first time the driver uses the brakes after he has activated the system.

The FIA may, after consulting all competitors, adjust the above time proximity in order to ensure the stated purpose of the adjustable bodywork is met.

Note that the measurement of how far one driver is behind another may be taken “at any of the pre-determined positions around each circuit”. For the purposes of this analysis the start/finish line has been used as that point.

The full data from the analysis is available here: Download the Adjustable Rear Wing 2010 analysis (Excel .xls format)

How do you think the adjustable rear wings will change races in 2011? Have your say in the comments.

Update: What if drivers could activate the rear wing when two seconds behind instead of one? Find the answer in the comments.

Thanks to BBT for the idea for this article

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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122 comments on “Ferrari had most to gain from adjustable rear wing in 2010”

  1. I’m actually really looking forward to this… although whoever came up with these stats has a bit too much time on their hands – it is really interesting to know. Schumacher could’ve used it a lot more than Rosberg and Button could’ve used it surprisingly little!

    1. whoever came up with these stats has a bit too much time on their hands

      I did and thanks…

      1. Brilliant feature Keith – don’t take it the wrong way! It’s very impressive, thank you, genuinely, hope my first comment didn’t seem a bit sarcastic, it wasn’t! :)

        1. That’s OK :-)

          1. Wow. I would think compiling that kind of information would take days of hard work. Great work Keith

          2. Awesome and a bit unexpected statistics.. Didn’t even think of this..

            But this probably says more about qualifying pace contra race pace than nothing else I’d say?!

          3. Great job Keith, I really wanted to see these numbers, and they seem to make sense, I would expect Ferrari to have made more use of it.
            Overall more use than I would of thought.
            No surprised the Macca’s would not of used it so much

          4. I’d just like to say Great Job Keith.

            It is this sort of stuff done personally by you that keeps F1Fanatic unique and different from a lot of the other good F1 sites.

          5. So we could have had more than 300 artificial passes in Brazil? madness

      2. I thought that it isn’t the wing angle that changes but a slot that opens in the rear wing, similar to the F Duct?

        1. It is the wing angle that changes.

          1. Just been reading up on it and you are correct. I just took the Autosport article that mentions the increase in slot gap. Thanks.

        2. It is both, sort of:
          The wing angle changes, i.e. the lower edge of the upper profile moves up – and flattens out (change of angle) thereby opening up the space between the lower and upper profile.

        3. The slot opens up by virtue of the angle of attack of the rear wing flap being reduced.

          If you look at an F1 car from straight ahead you will see the rear wing flap looks like it’s stood upright, especially on high downforce circuits.

          In this position the leading edge of the flap is much closer to the Rear Wing Main element which produces lots of downforce.

          When the driver hits the button the leading edge will move to widen the gap between the main element and the flap to around 5cm. This has the affect of turning the rear wing off thus reducing drag and increasing acceleration potential.

          It could cause some head scratching when choosing top gear ratios as a higher ratio chosen to maximise top speed under the low drag conditions might hinder acceleration when the wing adjustment is disabled.

          Imagine riding your push bike on the highest gear setting with a tail wind, it’s somewhat easier right? Then imagine doing the same thing into a head wind, not so easy is it?

          There will have to be a compromise in this area so it won’t be the mega boost we’re all imagining.

          It will certainly be interesting! Teams that aren’t bothering with KERS but do have the trick wing will be able to defend from none wing KERS cars. Non wing cars will have a more optimum top gear for high drag conditions which could make wing cars struggle to get within a second before activation of the wing is permitted. Wing + KERS cars (Mclaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes) could all be out at the front in a stalemate as usual.

      3. Very cool Keith. Hours of hard work and imagination as to how to analyse the raw data. Well worth the effort. It’s this kind of stuff that makes your site unique.

      4. Rhys (lightmasf1)
        25th January 2011, 11:07

        Yes, way to much time!! Must have taken ages.

        or, they just made then figures up knowing no one will ever check :)

      5. Well, that’s an amazing piece of work done, great analysis. It shows some important things : Ferrari had inabilities to pass opponents, for whatever reason, and they could have done better if the car was better. Then, we have Kubica, Michael and Koba, who were, as it seems, also very pushy, but were unable to pass, again due to different reasons. On the other hand, the Red Bull due have had quite a comfortable lead most of the time, so they didn’t exactly have the need to overtake. Let’s hope that this system will bring even more excitement to 2011.

      6. kenneth Ntulume
        25th January 2011, 14:10

        Indeed F1fanatic…..Jesus Christ…those statistics, similar to the loads of data, coming through a typical f1 team paddock during a race…shows u how much analysis has to be done before a decision on strategy or team tactics is implemented

      7. Your point of reference makes your theory almost useless.

        Unlikely choice by those involved to invoke use in a time and place where it would allow passing to be a given. Start again!

      8. It’s a lot of work Keith, and a useful guide, but how do you know which spot on the track would be designated as the allowed AWR section?

        I read another article recently that suggested that the main straight shouldn’t be used because the cars would bounce off the rev limiter. So, that makes it much less obvious as to where to put the designated AWR section.

        1. It’s a lot of work Keith, and a useful guide, but how do you know which spot on the track would be designated as the allowed AWR section?

          At the moment it’s not known – I expect the FIA will release details ahead of the first race.

    2. I think that’s deceptive though as I have noticed that Button will try to get past a car, but then when it become clear that he can’t he’ll drop back a little to et out of the dirty air and preserve his tyres to try again later.

      1. Or he is just pitiful at overtaking ala Catalunya.

        Yes blah blah Interlagos 2009 blah blah far superior car.

        1. Yes, a lot of drivers will have been doing that.

        2. …blah blah Vettel blah blah Silverstone this year blah blah even more humoungously ridiculously superior car blah blah over entire season blah blah…

          1. Starting from 14th sunshine, what would you expect?

      2. So true, and in case the AWR works, then the car that passed using it will probably widen the gap, so if it is successfull there will be less and less opportunities to use it.

    3. I think Schumacher was stuck behind slower cars more often than Rosberg, which is also why Massa had more opportunities than Alonso. In fact if you remove Abu Dhabi from those results, Massa would’ve had substantially more opportunities than Alonso. Vettel’s also relatively low compared to Webber for probably the same reason… he was out front with no one ahead of him more often than Webber was over the course of the season.

  2. Interesting to see how few chance Yamamoto would have had! Is this because of the number of races he was involved in, or because he couldn’t ever get within a second of another driver? :P

  3. Very nice analysis Keith, top work as always. I’m amazed at the commitment you show, this must have taken hours upon hours to do.

    To add something, had we had the ARW and KERS last year, the whole Hockenheim thing would never have happened, because Alonso would have passed Massa the first time, just after the pit stops. And though he would have been able to pass petrov in Abu Dhabi, gaining points, he would probably have eventually lost out to Hamilton and Webber in Australia; it would be fascinating to do a “what if” points calculation over the season for the drivers.

    I’m still very awkward about the whole thing, but anything that rewards making one extra stop and overtaking people has to be commended.

  4. Funny to see Hamilton – who could only have used it 6 times in 9 races after being able to use it 133 times in the races before that! Unbelievable!

    Sutil could’ve used it every race!

  5. Remember that those are only stats. If Alonso could use it in Abu Zabi he would use it, passed Petrov and didnt use it more (or Petrov could catch him on next lap) so the number would not be 38 but much less

    1. Exactly. There’s a few other cases like that – Hamilton on Rosberg in Bahrain, for example.

  6. In my opinion this is absolutely crazy. And too complicated, as a regulations.

    Statistic is great, thanks Keith.

    1. Yes, although it’s not hard to memorize that you can’t use it for the first 2 laps after a start/re-start. If all these rules are needed F1 must need it desperately, and it is true, but they could start by reducing aerodynamic downforce of the cars instead.

  7. Wow, hats off to you for crunching the numbers!

  8. Wow, how long did this take you?! 24 drivers in 19 races averaging something like 65 laps in each… that’s 30,000 laps you had to study, right??!

    1. i think that Keith already had those stats just needed to find laps when difference between one driver and another was less than 1s.

      I dont say that it was easy but in his case duable ;D

      1. But presumably he had to look through all 30,000 laps to see the distances between the cars. Or is there an easier way of doing it that I have missed?

        1. Since he used the start/finish line as his reference point, he could load race lap charts into a spreadsheet and then crunch the numbers. The really hard part would have been designing the spreadsheet and getting it to work properly.

          1. 2 lines in MATLAB tbf

          2. What’s MATLAB?

  9. Interesting analysis, and I guess tremendous amount of work to collect all the data!!! However, I think there are many more variables to consider to get a clear picture. If someone is stuck in the midfield, for any reason, he has more opportunities to use adjustable wings. On the other hand if you have a supreme car like a Red Bull in front of you, that is moving away at the fast rate, and you are driving on the second or third position you won’t be able to use it at all. All in all I see this as just another of those artificial rules that have to address issues that FIA is unwilling to address in a proper way.

    1. “All in all I see this as just another of those artificial rules that have to address issues that FIA is unwilling to address in a proper way”. Exactly my opinion.

  10. I think it gives a good measure of which drivers generally had better race pace than qualifying pace.

    This is particularly true for the Ferraris, Schumacher, Kobayashi and Hulkenberg.

  11. Rhys (lightmasf1)
    25th January 2011, 11:15

    Pretty cool though!!

  12. It would be interesting to have some equalized figures. Monaco race is 78 laps and Spa only 44, so basically Monaco should have 1,8 times more possibilities to use ARW.

    Silverstone, 52-lap race being so high is impressive. Not sure but I think that race would top equalized figures.

    1. but monaco dosent have so much straights like Spa

      1. It doesn’t matter – the adjustable rear wing can only be used on one part of any track.

        1. HounslowBusGarage
          25th January 2011, 13:22

          That’s what we have all assumed, but it’s not what’s in the regulations.

          It will only be enabled if the driver is less than one second behind another at any of the pre-determined positions around each circuit.

          “Any” indicates there may be more than one.

          1. Nice spot.

            This “any pre-determined position” as Keith has taken to calculate these numbers are the start finish line and/or the sector lines, I think. So, there are 3 points per circuit.

          2. Yes, but there will only be 1 pre-determined position, so that’s a moot point for now. They’ve worded it that way to leave room for adjustments as the season goes on, because they want this to work and work well in a clear and transparent way for rabid fans and occasional viewers alike.

  13. Some really positive feedback here, thanks very much everyone.

    1. Great analysis Keith but there may be a major problem with your basic premise. Are you basing this on one driver at a designated point being 1 second behind a driver who is ahead of him in the race? The regulation states

      It will only be enabled if the driver is less than one second behind another at any of the pre-determined positions around each circuit.

      To me this implies that activation will occur if any driver passes the activation point within 1 second of any other whether they are fighting for a position, lapping a backmarker or being lapped; regardless of their overall positions in the race. If this is the case there would be many more times the number of activations than your stats indicate. The regulations also refer to “pre-determined positions (plural) around each circuit” which means that, depending on the circuit, there may be more than one activation point.

      1. I don’t think they’d interpret “behind” so broadly as to include “behind lapped cars”.

        And I did note the point about the gap measurement being taken at multiple positions around the track.

        1. It will be interesting to see just how this will be implemented. With the first race still almost 7 weeks away, I think the framers may be waiting the first use of the systems in testing before deciding on exactly how this will work and even then it subject to fine-tuning as the season progresses.
          Another thought is that as “The adjustable bodywork may be activated by the driver at any time prior to the start of the race” they may be able to take the actual start with the wing flatted and then not be able to use it again during the first 2 laps.

    2. Strategy-wise, the numbers are just the tip of the iceberg:

      1) On the one hand, if using the ARW in Abu Dhabi, Alonso had passed Petrov at his first opportunity, he would only have needed to use it two more times to pass Kubica and Rosberg. He may have caught Button and used it one more time. This would tend to reduce the number of total opportunities.

      2) On the other hand, drivers in like cars or drivers caught in packs would pass each other every other opportunity. This could increase the number of total opportunities geometrically.

      Coupled with KERS, computer modeling of race strategy becomes even more complex.

  14. That is brilliant analysis, particularly the potential ARW activations per race.

    It does highlight a potential flaw in the thinking. For example there were loads of ARW opportunities in Canada because there was already lots of close racing and overtaking. Canada last year was one of the races we really didn’t need ARW overtaking help. But Bahrain, where we really did need help, had the third fewest possibilities for ARW overtaking.

    So on that basis the ARW is the wrong way round – doesn’t help the races you need it in and probably overdoes the races you don’t.

    Of course that’s only part of the story – Valencia and Abu Dhabi are quite high for ARW opportunities, where overtaking is always tricky, and some of the races where overtaking is a bit easier were quite low.

    And Bahrain next year ought to be easier to get close to another car, with the removal of the endurance track loop bit.

    But really it becomes clear to me is that what you have to do is look at the races where it’s difficult to get close to another car and make the ARW more effective. It might well be that the “standard” ARW set-up has to be modified a bit more than you might think each race. For example on those stats maybe you want it twice as effective at Bahrain as it might normally be, and half as effective at Canada as it might normally be – if you see what I mean.

    Although as you more or less note Keith the FIA have licence to change anything regarding the rear wing, more or less – either in where and when it can be used or how close in time you have to be to use it.

    So all that analysis might retrospectively become completely different if the rule gets tweaked from race to race a lot.

    Having said that, it’s still massively useful to see.

    1. Although as you more or less note Keith the FIA have licence to change anything regarding the rear wing, more or less – either in where and when it can be used or how close in time you have to be to use it.

      So all that analysis might retrospectively become completely different if the rule gets tweaked from race to race a lot.

      Good point, so let’s take the analysis a little further. We already know that assuming a one-second gap there would have been 3,511 activations.

      A quick crunch of the numbers suggests if they doubled the gap to two seconds there would have been more than twice as many opportunities to use the rear wing: 7,217.

      1. Nice!

        Think I’ll be downloading that Excel spreadsheet for a play later on.

      2. Am I missing the bit in the rules where it says how many times per lap this can be done?
        “pre-determined positions” is plural, and would lead me to think the sectors so they don’t need a whole bunch of extra timing beams…

        1. The cars carry a GPS responder to provide their positions on the track… this might be used to calculate those track positions.

          … unless I’m very much mistaken!

    2. People want the fastest car to start in front + people want more overtaking = People are naive.

      But I think this will be a great addition to the races :D

  15. Excellent work Keith, it will be interesting to compare these figures at the end of the season after the wings do come into effect!
    In regards to the rules, if this a driver operated aid, under what grounds is it governed, how can a drive tell that he is 1sec behind another driver and not 1.1sec? Is it enabled via official timing? If not, will it be abused and if so what are the penalties.
    Thanks again, your dedication to the sport is reflected in your site and second to none.

    1. The FIA will monitor the gap to the pursuing car and when the gap is 1 sec or less the FIA will notify the puruing driver driver by sending a signal to the car which will probably display as a flashing light or message on the steering wheel.

      A similar system is employed with the prescribed lap time under safety car conditions.

  16. Also, the lap 3 cluster will be a TV director’s nightmare :-D

  17. I can see this regulation being a complete and utter nightmare. Thankfully we have people like Keith to make sense of it all :)

  18. Hahaha, Keith you do need to get out more. But that’s really fascinating data. :D

  19. A decent analysis, however surely the figures are misleading due to the simple fact that if they were allowed to use the wings to perform an overtaking move then they would then be in front of the other driver/car & have less opportunities to use it as a result.

    Not meaning to sound negative towards the study. Merely pointing out my opinion.

    This new rule is going to cause plenty of confusion this year.

  20. I believe there will be an automatic system to decide if the car is less than 1 second behind. I expect the first 2 laps to be kind of weird, all the front drivers pushing hard to get more than 1 second of advantage and getting clear of any attack after the first 2 laps.

    In the other and, I believe no one will risk an overtaking in the first 2 laps.
    And even the starting of the race will be strange, drivers will risk much less, but in the other and we can see some driver taking advantage of this and pass some drivers in the first moments of the race.

  21. Am I the only one that’s fed up with people (no one in particular) moaning about this regulation?

    I wasn’t sure at first, but if you take time to read its use, it’s not as bad as you think.

    It’s more about mind-set, and practicality.

    My mind set is that F1 is meant to be, whether you like it or not, at the forefront of automobile technology (that’s atleast how it’s intended). We must, must, welcome new gadgets and ‘get with the times’, because F1 is about image. I also understand it’s about practicality. To expect all the teams to jump and make a car that uses barely any wing and ground effect for this season is ridiculous. These changes are coming in in 2013, so what’s everyone’s problem?

    Did it take too long to implement? Yes.
    Have they finally acted on it and tried to properly solve the issue? Yes.
    Should they have bought the rules forward for this season or 2012? No – How can you expect teams to develop this rear wing, put all this research in to it, and then only use it for one season?

    At the end of the day, the technology and rules are the same for everyone – it’s still business as usual. The team who can develop this new technology the best, and has the drivers who pick up on it the quickest, will be victorious.

    New challenges are healthy and keep the sport interesting.

    1. Interesting thoughts. I may do a comment piece on the wings soon, I’ve got a few ideas jotted down.

    2. At the end of the day, the technology and rules are the same for everyone – it’s still business as usual. The team who can develop this new technology the best, and has the drivers who pick up on it the quickest, will be victorious.

      Spot on Dan! Developing rear wings suited to each track is going to be a black art this year. While the slot gap may be be increased by up to 40mm when activated, the increase in gap could be less. This in conjuction with differently sized and angled rear wings for each circuit will lead to the teams with the most resources for in-season development gaining a sizable advantage. Another area to watch will be the shaping of the airflow over the engine cover to maximize the effectiveness of the adjusted rear wing.

  22. Fantastic!! i always wondered what would have happened if team had ARW last season. i think ARW would be the best thing that happened to F1 after ban on fuel stops!!

  23. A little off topic. Given how complex rear wings will have to be next season, does it mean that teams will find it more difficult to implement new rear wing designs? Will rear wings have to pass some kind of FIA approval a few weeks before they can be introduced?

  24. What will the rules be for FP and quali? Are they allowed to test it during FP?

    1. HounslowBusGarage
      25th January 2011, 13:42

      It would seem so.

      The adjustable bodywork may be activated by the driver at any time prior to the start of the race

      It would be absurd and very dangerous to give drivers a performance advantage in the race without having allowed them to practice with it first.

      1. Oops oversaw that, so this small notice may also mean that there is a loophole for activating the wing prior to the start of the race, giving an advantage to the first corner? Or do the regulation specify an earlier starting point for the race than the green light?

        1. HounslowBusGarage
          25th January 2011, 13:57

          No. Only after two laps of the race.

          after the driver has completed a minimum of two laps after the race start or following a safety car period

          1. From my post on the previous page HBG

            Another thought is that as “The adjustable bodywork may be activated by the driver at any time prior to the start of the race” they may be able to take the actual start with the wing flatted and then not be able to use it again during the first 2 laps.

          2. After closely reading regulations about starting procedure and the adjustable bodywork I dont see why they could not activate it on the reconnaisance or formation lap. In my head that is prior to the start of the race. Which means he can use due to this rule:

            The adjustable bodywork may be activated by the driver at any time prior to the start of the race

            Also it will give him an advantage until the braking for the first corner seeing as:

            The system will be disabled by
            the control electronics the first time the driver uses the brakes after he has activated the system.

            Somebody has to try this :P

          3. This of course can only be done if the start/finish straight is one of the areas where the wing can be activated.

          4. Doesn’t matter. The wing can be adjusted freely at any time before the race, the activation via the control electronics only comes into play during the race itself.

            The driver may only activate the adjustable bodywork in the race when he has been notified via the control electronics (see Article 8.2) that it is enabled.

          5. Aha, if this is indeed possible I think we are the last persons to find out though and everybody will do it for the first race and then it will be banned.

          6. HounslowBusGarage
            25th January 2011, 16:53

            Ah, yes. I see what you mean.

    2. What I’m wondering is how many angles will they use. If they can freely use the wing for qualifying, why not set it to a different angles for different corners?

      The regulations don’t mention anything about this. Just that it’s upright and “activated”.

      1. I’ve wondered the same Patrick. Will the driver’s button be a simple on switch or will he be able to adjust the activated gap to anywhere within the allowed 40mm range?

  25. Could someone clarify for me what being within one second of someone means. For example if someone is being overtaken could they use the ARW the moment the person next to them has their nose in front?

    1. HounslowBusGarage
      25th January 2011, 13:48

      I posed a similar question on another thread and someone (can’t remember who) pointed out that ARW can only take affect as the cars pass an ‘activation point’.
      So if Car A passes Car B by using ARW, and Car B manages to hang on within one second of Car A until the next ‘activation point’, Car B will be able to use ARW and Car A won’t.

  26. Obviously, if this wing works, strategies might change. There might be more pitstops when drivers know they will be able to overtake once they are on fresh tyres.

  27. ‘The Ferrari drivers would have been able to us the adjustable rear wing’.

    Don’t you mean USE?

    Nice article.

  28. HounslowBusGarage
    25th January 2011, 13:40

    Fascinating analysis Keith, looking at the data makes me wonder if ARW would have made Canada more exciting and Bahrain even more dull!
    Reading DeadManWoking’s post made me wonder about lapped cars; I’m sure that the figures do not include lapping cars, but are you certain that ARW will not be available to allow a car to be lapped or unlapped?
    And what about this scenario; Car A is lapping Car B. And he does it just before an ‘activation point’. So according to the technology, Car B is within a second of Car A and is therefore allowed to stall the wing. Or can that not happen?
    Actually, it could genuinely happen in a battle for position. So it is not in a driver’s interest to nip passed under braking for the corner just before an ‘activation point’ because the car you’ve just passed will be able to stall the wing and you won’t! Less overtaking, not more?

  29. serious number crunching well presented

    excellent work, thank you

  30. Well, this’s is just great. Awesome stuff I must admit! But how’d you do it…look through each driver lap-by-lap on a race-per-race basis??

    1. Yeah, pretty much.

      1. ****, that’s super good!

  31. Wow Keith!! You never cease to amaze the readers.

    Apart from the painstaking efforts of converting the results of all previous champions to the 2010 points system, you were also doing this!!!

    I am sure that the race charts FIA makes publicly available on their website supplies all the data for this. But converting it into a SAS or excel database so that such things can be calculated is no child’s play. Apart from that, having the foresight to use that to calculate these exact numbers is simply incredible.

    However, I do notice an inconsistency. I will take the simplest grand prix, the Bahrain 2010. Fernando Alonso has a number of 0 for this race, while Vettel has a number of 1 for this race.

    But Fernando made 1 overtaking manoeuvre at Bahrain in non safety car non first lap conditions. So by this data, Fernando somehow jumped from being more than one second behind to front of Vettel. He obviously had an opportunity to use the wing once.
    Similarly, Vettel was overtaken thrice in this race in non safety car non first lap conditions but the number for him is 1. This number should be atleast 3 for him as once he was overtaken, he did have chance to re-overtake.
    I think you have taken the time gaps between drivers at the end of every lap or at the end of every sector. While this effort itself is painstaking it is not complete.
    I hope you understand that I am only being nitpicky and not degrading your work.

    1. Thanks Sumedh. Regarding Alonso and Vettel at Bahrain, remember Vettel had a car problem in that race so although Alonso went past him on the track this was a healthy car going past an ailing one.

      I’ve just looked it up and Alonso’s gaps to Vettel in the five laps before he went past were as follows:

      1.505s
      1.103s
      1.271s
      2.259s
      1.096s

  32. The fact that Hamilton, of all people, couldn’t use the ARW if it were there baffles me. Look at his mid-season, 5 races with 0 chance of using it!

  33. Only a man who calls himself an f1 fanatic can come up with these sort of painstalking but impressive stuff..proud to be a part of your site keith..keep it up!

  34. But i think these stats underlines the fact that having kers helped mclaren a lot.also the mistakes ferrari and their drivers made meant they couldnt maximise their potential..btw keith does the stat include the times a car can be overtaken during the 1st two laps or after the safety car period?

    1. But i think these stats underlines the fact that having kers helped mclaren a lot.

      Not sure what you mean – no-one used KERS in 2010.

      1. Oops!!..meant to say f-duct. I have some questions. How much speed advantage can we expect from this wing stalling?.can it differ from team to team or is there a specific number mentioned in the rules? Another question is if say three to four cars are within a sec of one another, will that mean that the last one will to use the device all along a straight till he overtakes the 1st guy??i cant help but think that it might get a bit messy as the 3rd and 2nd guy will also be using it.The third is quite a stupid one actually. What if the wing jams in the stalled position? Will he be penalized for having unfair advantage on a straight??a team can exploit it by itentionally design to jam it and use a more downforce setting knowing that they’l be having a great advantage on the straight.. Fourthly will this device be allowed to use in monaco? I think its too dangerous.

  35. Good work Keith. I have to say I find the rules concerning the usage of the adjustable rear wings abit confusing. Its going to be interesting to see how they are applied in the real world during grands prix, and I can see penalties being handed out alot due to these rules. Fanatics like ourselves maybe into all these rules and regulations, but I pity the casual observer and new F1 fans who may all find this rather baffling.
    It all seems rather amateurish to me.

    1. I don’t forsee any problems with penalties in the race as the system activation is all done electronically. When a driver is within the proscribed time gap behind another at an activation point, a computerized signal is sent to his car’s ECU activating the wing adjustment system and he is notified of it by a light on his dash and he then presses a button to adjust the wing. If he presses the button when the system is not active nothing at all happens and therefore no penalty need be applied.

  36. I’m not keen on this rule. I have two main problems with it. First, allowing a performance advantage to help overtaking is artificial, but if you have to do it why not use KERS for this. KERS won’t help the racing if everyone can use it all the time, so using it this way might actually make KERS worthwhile (Teams that cannot afford KERS would have to be helped out). Second, team-mates are judged by their respective performances because they have the same car, but not anymore if they are allowed to keep up or overtake because of the adjustable wing. Vettel can’t pull away from Webber at 0.3 seconds per lap if Webber can close that gap by pushing a button on the straight every lap.
    Good site, btw!
    Don.

  37. I have to wonder if this may lead to more collisions. Drivers trying to force a pass while they have the marginal advantage of the ARW. And, drivers defending to keep someone from diving under them. Seems like a recipe for more Vettel/Webber, Vettel/Button, etc. type incidents.

    Just how much of a relative boost (mph) will it provide?

    Great analysis Keith!

  38. The Ferrari line is that this could make for artificial racing, but they won’t stand in the way of its introduction.

    In my opinion the system is unnecessarily complicated. Relying on GPS while driving through a tunnel, and then too many ifs and other clauses attached.

    The cheapest option to enhancing overtaking, is taking off the wings. Installing movable, load bearing, rear wings will only bring more costs to the development of the cars that the new teams will cherish. Likewise will it provide an additional failure mode to the already complicated setups of the modern F1 car.

    What next, lasers to zap the tyres of the leading car.

  39. Why for some reason does this seem like another dig at Ferrari???

    1. Its not, it just shows that many times they got caught out by being held up by people. Not at all surprising. Remember Alonsos mid session races getting ruined by bad luck, well these stats clearly show that he didn’t get the results due to being held back.

  40. Keith,
    almost speechless, I wanted to put this kind of thing together myself but didn’t have the raw data, I do a lot of data analysis in my work but this is amazing effort.
    Thanks for the acknowledgeable for the idea, I had a feeling you might be crazy enough (a fanatic enough) to put such data together, great job.
    This site is still my first port of call for F1 information. :-)

  41. Fantastic analysis.

    It should be noted that the 2010 races least affected by the potential usage of this device were both run in the rain.

  42. Charles Carroll
    25th January 2011, 21:54

    If you get within a half second of the car in front of you, there should be some sort of missile you could use. That would be much better for the show.

  43. I wonder, if any of the teams will use this article when trying to figure out the ARW, or have already compiled such information on their own. No wonder Ferrari is so excited.

  44. Well, I bet that the rear wing stuff will increase the gap betwen the (Ferrari, Mclaren, Redbull) and the medium teams (Mercedes, Renault, Williams).

    For the show, maybe they should just do tricks with tires, allowing tatics and drama at the end of race.

    I think that unfortunately most of races will be decided before the 15th lap.

  45. Keith,

    Fantastic job, cheers – you should investigate betfair if you like this sort of thing – is there going to be an article pre-Friday where we can make our best ill-informed and amateurish predictions about what we’ll see this year? Someone’s already touched on the interesting things you can maybe do with a non-shark fin engine cover when you have a movable rear wing.

    Keep up the good work!

    PS depending on easyjet prices etc I might be flying out to the first or second test for some atmosphere and photo ops, so looking forward to any articles about them too

    1. is there going to be an article pre-Friday where we can make our best ill-informed and amateurish predictions about what we’ll see this year?

      If you mean “will the F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship” be back this year then the answer is “yes”!

  46. Once again a pretty pointless topic with lots of disregarded and/or forgotten information.

    The stats on how many passes would have been possible by driver at track is completely inacurate, because we don’t yet know which corners at each track, the activations for use of the rear wing will take place.

    Also, there is no way of determining how many times the rivals would switch back and forth places after the first pass was made.

    Finally, we don’t know if the predetermined activation points will only be corners only, they may well be at the exit of corners onto a long straight, with rivals passing multiple times on that straight, wing adjustment or not, several times.

    Maybe another fanboy noticed the completely hypothetical stats; “Alsono is the true champion” Massa in 08 esque. The only thing we can take from the stats, if anything at all, is that Ferrari qualified badly and/or, were overtaken more, had more wing and were more sinsitive when in dirty air of the car in front. And judging by Massa’s performances, they probably had all of those problems. Only Alonso’s talent made up for the rest.

    If this site didn’t have HD pictures it would be worthless.

    1. The stats on how many passes would have been possible by driver at track is completely inacurate, because we don’t yet know which corners at each track, the activations for use of the rear wing will take place.

      The data doesn’t show “how many passes would have been possible” and I never said it did. It shows how many opportunities to use the rear wing drivers would have had last year.

      Maybe another fanboy noticed the completely hypothetical stats; “Alsono is the true champion” Massa in 08 esque.

      Er, what?

  47. Pain staking work but dosnt really mean alot, crashed out…no o overtaking opportunity, leading race, little overtaking need, the only reason
    Massa at the top is because he had a reasonable car yet lagged back in the field

  48. Wow! Amazing information, no wonder why F1Fanatic is the best F1 website. Great article Kieth!

  49. Great article Keith! Thanks for the insight and the research. This is why I visit the site every day.

    If nothing else, this shows us how close the racing was during the year. Hopefully, this year when a car is “stuck” behind another car, lap after lap, the wing will help the car behind to get around the car in front. Then he’ll be off to get the next guy.

    However, do you think that this will cause the field to be strung out with the fastest cars out front and too far apart to pass? In other words, let’s say that everyone uses the wing to get by the slower cars in laps 3-10 and after that the order is based on who runs the fastest laps, will the rest of the race be processional? Is there a way this can backfire on F1?

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