F1 Fanatic

A simple RB6 insight, but I feel an okay one for something thought upon while in the shower, goes someway to explaining the RB6′s extreme flex especially compared to the Ferrari, an the design philosophy of the car.

This flexi buisness, it’s clear from the design of the front wing that it was always designed with flexing in mind. If you look at the positioning of the cascades and the way the outer is clearly designed so that higher loading occurs on the outside of the wing, both pushing the outsinde of the wing down further but taking advantage of its lower height creating even more downforce at higher speeds.

However all these extra winglets come at the cost of extreme drag all over the car especially when the wing flexes on long straights, worth it for the cornering speeds but also as a philosophy worth hiding from the other teams, hence Horners constant moaning about the Renault, we all know it’s rubbish but it’s a usefull smokescreen to hide the RB6′s sod the drag philosophy.

A philosophy which on the modern f1 calender, a calender with all of 3 medium to low downforce circuits an a few inbetweeners, isn’t punished thanks to the highly modern wings on F1 cars which are incredibly efficient anyway, a philosophy that makes the car invincible on slow high downforce circuits and nigh on uncatchable on faster high downforce circuits though apparently not in the race, (Spain Germany Turkey etc)

The loaded nature of the RB6′s wings also can help explain why Sebastians car swerved so violently on a fairly dry track, and why the wing rocked so violently when the loaded end came out into clean air. It’ll be interesting to see if Ferrari and McLaren, both of whom attempted to do as the did from 06 onwards an create a car for all seasons and tracks this year will now follow the RB6 philosophy of car design. Renault and Mercedes contenders next year will also be facinaiting, especially as both essentially spent this year recouvering from the chaos of the last. Mercedes has quite a few nice innovations on their car despite a rubbish concept, an the development rate on the Renault has been staggering, if they kick of on the right foot both will be major contenders.

If that’s true Raul then that’s incredible, thanks for at least bringing it up.

(By the way, “piano” – in English they’re “rumble strips” or “kerbs”/”kerbing”. I love how poetic “piano” sounds though!)

Back to Scribe, it does look obvious the way the wing is made it’s meant to flex. Also I’ve noticed for a while now Horner says they “meet the tests” blah blah – he never says they don’t flex. It’s an open secret that the tests don’t simulate what happens out on the road and they need further tightening.

Finally, I agree – McLaren and Ferrari have suffered from their usual all-rounder policy. Drag v downforce on all but maybe three tracks has the latter winning every time.

All I can say is good going Red Bull. Al this moaning from Ferrari and McLaren is ridiculous. Sure the wing flexes, but like Horner says, if it passes the test, there’s nothing wrong.

Red Bull clearly started designing the car around cornering rather than straight line speed. Ferrari and McLaren went the other way, to an extent, and it pays off at low down force circuits. Obviously Red Bull got it right- they’ve had the best car all season.

From the beginning of the season there has been nothing but Whingeing particularly from the likes of McLaren’s Whitmarsh about the Red Bull.
Newey must be a brilliant person.Look at the innovations that are on that car and how other teams race to copy them.
The Red Bull RB6 was has a flexi front wing.So what,whether people agree or disagree it meets the test criteria set by the FIA.I personally disagree with the bending of the rules but…..

It must be a grey area.If the wings do flex the FIA load tests don’t prove that they do.So i suspect that there is nothing that the FIA can do about it without changing the rules and having a lot more stringent load tests on the wings.
Next season we won’t see those wings flex more than a few MM.

I think flexing wings have been illegal for quite a bit longer than that, Patrick. I heard something like 30 years. Could be wrong though.

There is a rule that states that no aerodynamic part may move in relation to the sprung part of the car. So, if a body part flexes, it is technically against the rules.

But it’s not enough to say “ZOMFG LOOK FLEXING,” it has to be supported by evidence. All these things have to have tolerances built into them, because in engineering it’s not possible (or, at least, not feasible) for a part to remain perfectly rigid all the time. The evidence the FIA currently uses is the load test – if a part passes the load test, it’s not flexing to any significant degree, hence it is legal.

The FIA have changed load tests before to render a part illegal – such as Ferrari’s flexing floor in 2007. Now they have done so again, but the Red Bull wing still passes the test.

All the teams are held to the same standard. Any other team could do exactly what Red Bull is doing now and get away with it. The only nonsense is that some teams still insist on bleating about a demonstrably legal part.

Funny how there was no such thing as the spirit of the rules when we were discussing the F-duct, but now McLaren are more than happy to talk about it.

I think the wing must be built to flex when vertical load is combined with horizontal load. AFAIK the FIA tests are purely a vertical load placed on the wing when the car is stationary. The wing is therefore not subject to any Horizontal load which occurs as rearwards drag when the car is actually moving.

A stationary test that comes to mind would be to use a cord to pull the wing both down and backwards while measuring the appropriate load being applied. Depending on how you position the machine used to apply the pulling force I guess you could use any angle from 100% vertical (180 degrees) to 100% horizontal (90 degrees). That should be able mimic the combination of vertical and horizontal load occurring when the car is moving.

After seeing the Red Bull wing move around so violently in Button’s wake at Spa, I think it is better to just ban the flexing at the end of the season, than have most of the teams turn up with it on their car next year.