Formula One heads to Australia for the first race of the season as another storm brews over rear wing flexibility, even though there’s more restrictions in place this season.
Following concerns raised during pre-season testing that some teams may still be finding a way to circumvent the additional restrictions imposed upon them, the FIA are taking further measures to understand and react to any solutions that may flex beyond what is intended.
Flexi-wings: The more things change, the more they stay the same
Similar to the study conducted on the front wing between the Belgian and Singapore Grand Prix last season and for which the load and deflection tests will be altered from the Spanish Grand Prix this season, the governing body will mirror this for the rear wing from the Australian Grand Prix.
Teams have been notified of an update to technical directive TD034, which instructs them to be prepared to install a rear facing housing, capable of accommodating a camera specified by the governing body that will monitor the rear wing’s deflection during Friday’s Free Practice sessions, with target dots placed on the rear wing as a capture medium.
As was the case with front wing flexibility, it’s understood that there’s no one defined method to overcome the restrictions in place, making it difficult for the governing body to create a catch-all solution to the problem.
For example, even with a lack of rear-facing footage being available during pre-season testing it quickly became apparent that everyone still had, to one degree or another, some mobility in their rear wing designs that might improve performance beyond the tolerances that are currently covered by the static load tests.
Most of this footage seemed to suggest that there was a more linear effect being seen, whereby the rear wing tilts back as it is loaded. Now, it could be argued that this is simply an effect of the loads being imparted and given that nothing can be infinitely rigid, otherwise it would be damaged, it is an acceptable practice.
Welcome to Mini-DRS 2.0
But, whilst the standard practices used in the past to create flexion are often easier to see, McLaren’s rivals have been keen to point out that the Woking-based outfit may have found another way to exploit the ‘mini-DRS’ effect.
“It is still going on,” Pierre Wache, Red Bull’s Technical Director said. “I think Ferrari and McLaren are doing the mini-DRS stuff still.”
And, whilst the rear wing fitted to the MCL39 doesn’t seem to have the same properties as the design used last season, whereby the front corner of the upper flap curled upwards to open the slot gap when DRS wasn’t being employed, there does appear to be a difference in the gap between the mainplane and tip section when the wing is loaded and unloaded.
The deformation seen in the limited amount of rear-facing footage that was available during pre-season testing shows a larger gap open between the trailing edge of the mainplane and the leading edge of the tip section.
Furthermore, there was also evidence that the wing wasn’t performing as would be traditionally expected when the team painted the assembly with flo-viz during testing.
However, this region of the wing isn’t explicitly covered by the incoming alterations made to the regulations, with article 3.15.17 added in order to explicitly prohibit the ‘mini-DRS’ effect that had been employed last season.
It’ll therefore be interesting to see if, when and how the FIA respond to any noticeable flexion that’s occurring when they study the footage being captured during Free Practice sessions.
Read more: Uncovered: McLaren’s intriguing change to their front suspension