The Flexi Wing drama that has been bubbling over in recent races should draw a line at Paul Ricard as the FIA introduces new tests to prevent teams from circumventing the pre-existing stress and sag tests.
The teams had around a month to prepare for the new test conditions, which require the designers to adhere to new values and which not only have to deal with a deflection test but also a rotation component.
The new guidelines suggest that the body must not rotate more than one degree about an axis perpendicular to the median plane when two 750N loads are applied rearward.
In addition, the body must not rotate more than one degree about an axis perpendicular to the median plane when two 1000 N loads are applied in the downward direction.
But even with the new rear wing tests that are to be introduced at the French GP, the FIA has decided to be proactive and will also examine the rear wing more closely using the rear-facing onboard camera recordings.
At the behest of the governing body, a series of 10mm dots were installed on all the rear wings of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and used as reference points when monitoring the footage (as shown in the illustration of the Ferrari wing).
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Teams have been using this themselves as a method of understanding flexibility for a number of years, although they usually use a checkerboard sticker in place of the dots for reference (as seen in the image above when Red Bull was running its own testing). together with the FIA during free practice in Baku).
In any case, the teams had started to respond to the new demands earlier when Red Bull arrived at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a completely new rear wing design that was reminiscent of what we saw at Spa in 2020.
The redesigned wing removed many of the features attributed to the adjustment of the flow structures around the endplate, such as the curved fins in the lower hanging section and the stepped cutout in the upper rear quarter.
Of course, if these rollers had been installed, they would have been diminished anyway by the ratio of wings due to lower downforce and drag in the outer sections. Still, it’s interesting to see how these details are removed again.
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