Video shows adjustable rear wing on Sauber C30

2011 F1 season

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This video produced by Sauber gives the best illustration yet of how the new adjustable rear wing works.

Filmed yesterday at Valencia, the video shows how the flap moves to reduce drag at high speed and increase downforce when cornering, all controlled by the driver.

The sequence is towards the end of this video:

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    Keith Collantine
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    31 comments on “Video shows adjustable rear wing on Sauber C30”

    1. Great idea of showing us all what it does. From this and from pictures of the mercedes and the ferrari with open/closed wing I think we will al be pretty comfortable seeing when a driver uses it.
      Even the driver in front might get an idea of weather the chasing car activates his so might anticipate a move.

      1. I doubt he’d be able to see it from there – they’re always commenting on how restricted rear vision is (especially considering the mad vibrations)

    2. Doesn’t look as spectacular as I expected :)

      1. What were you hoping for? Fireworks? :)

      2. It looks more spectacular than I expected.
        And I thought the upper edge of the wing would be the movable one, I’m surprised it’s the lower one.

        1. I think it is the upper part moving or my eyes have gone bad.

          1. I think he meant that he thought it would be hinged at the front rather than the back to that the top part would be raising rather than the front part lowering.

        2. safety feature,in case of failure,wing snaps to full downforce position.

    3. Agree with Mister Nillionaire, it looks really unispriring, was looking for a smooth movement, looks like something off robot wars, i suppose it is there to get results quickly, just doesnt look amazing!

      1. A smooth movement could give so many aerodynamic variables at great speed. I would argue it’s safer to have it snap into position.

    4. I expected it to be a lot more delicate.

      1. Besides delicate, I expected it to be a little more sophisticated. But I guess different teams will have different mechanisms.

      2. So I’m not the only one!

    5. Wow! It moves way more than I was expecting it to. It might even be possible to see it move on TV (especially) in HD during the race.

      I’m not sure I’m a fan of the idea. KERS I like, although with KERS I think they need to add a light to the outside of the car so we can see when they are using it.

    6. Its great to see the Pirelli logos on the tyres again!

    7. That’s much more drastic than I was expecting.

      I’m still aversive to this idea in the way it’s implemented. The fact that it’s only given to the car behind just seems so superficial to me. :/

    8. Testing times mean even less with those wings, because you don’t know who has been using it on their fastest lap.

      1. Testing times mean nothing.

      2. I don’t think it will get used during testing laps. During the race the following car can use it only when within 1 sec of car in front.

        1. I think that the teams can use it throughout practice and qualifying when they want, so im sure they can use it in testing.

    9. Agreed on that one. Doesn´t seems fair for the driver in front can´t defend his position unless uses kers. Should be equal to everybody when wont to use the new rear wing.

      1. The point is to negate the disadvantage of the trailing car being in dirty air. How many times did we see much faster cars get stuck behind much slower ones last season because they lost grip as soon as they were close? I am not sure this is the best answer but it is there because currently the leading car has a huge advantage.

    10. Personally, I would like the rear wing to have a mini strip of lights on the very top plane which are red, and turn blue when the flap is in use, it would make it much easier for us to see it then ;)

    11. Nom nom nom, it looks like pac-man opening and closing his mouth. That said, it shuts so quickly I think it will be safe.

    12. Am I the only one who wants to see a video of 2 F1 cars playing table tennis now?

      Like the engine on the test stand playing God Save The Queen (Williams iirc?) – c’mon Vodafone PR, I smell a viral video coming up :D

    13. Impressive!

    14. Younger Hamilton
      2nd February 2011, 22:46

      Looks pretty cool and the process was faster than i anticipated Two Questions,How do you activate it something on the steering wheel? and will Teams still designing different types of Rear Wings even with the system in place.

    15. When is the FIA going to get the message.
      Now they have become co-drivers in a Formula 1 car and will control the times and places a driver can use the adjustable rear wing.
      What compensation will they give if the FIA controlled wing adjustment fails?
      How many more race result decisions will be be changed following the completion of a race now by the FIA as a result of disputes regarding this genius inovation.
      FIA get THIS most followers with half a brain of Formula 1 would like to see NO FRONT WINGS,NO REAR WINGS
      ALL AERO DYNAMICS PART OF THE CARS BODY WORK,NO TELEMETRY TRANSMISION DURING A RACE AND NO DRIVER TO PIT COMS OTHER THAN PIT BOARD.
      Then we will see overtaking,clever drivers and fast drivers racing and the development then advanced more able to be applied to regular vehicles.
      Stop messing about with engine capacity,size and aspiration etc just reduce allowable fuel consumption each year for a while and then we will see some relevant inovation that will transfer over to regular vehicles.
      It would be nice to know which driver is genuinely the best driver in F1 and to see race cars that dont appear to be aircraft that some one mistakenly fitted the undercarriage on to up side down.

    16. this wing is going to be dangerous.

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