The FIA inflexible on front wing stiffness

Motor Racing - Formula One World Championship - Chinese Grand Prix - Practice Day - Shanghai, China

In its latest technical directive, the sport’s ruling body makes it clear that it wants to see stricter tests being enforced, and more specifically on flaps. Here is how the document reads:

“A 60N point load will be applied to any part of the trailing edge of any front wing flap. The load will be applied normal to the flap at the relevant point, and the deflection may not exceed 3mm when measured vertically at the trailing edge in order for the wing to meet the regulations.”

CHANGES ARE EXPECTED

Although 60N seem fairly low when compared to the sort of aero loads front wings have to cope with, this will nonetheless prove sufficient to force some teams to revise the stiffness of their new front wings. These are not necessarily illegal, but have not been designed to pass the tests that will be conducted from Montreal onwards.

With next month’s Canadian Grand Prix approaching fast, teams have to mobilise their efforts and alter the low-downforce kits they had planned to introduce at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. But we will have to wait for more onboard footage, especially on high downforce track, to check whether the 60N load is enough or not.

While running flex front wings have some benefits, the stricter test is unlikely to have a major influence on the current pecking order. As shown by last year’s ban on interconnected suspensions (FRIC), performance gaps never boil down to a single parameter but rather a multitude of factors. This is what makes modern Formula One beautifully, albeit sometimes unnecessarily, complex.

Spanish GP Saturday 09/05/15

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