Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
Yeah, but the car might not be so stable under the high speeds it creates.
Murphy's 9th Law of Technology:
Tell a man there are 300 million stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure.
As Monstro said Williams tested that setup in 1997 during pre-gp test but it wasn’t used for the race.
Some years ago a similar rear wing setup (no upper elements) was the norm for F3 cars in Monza, now they don’t use it anymore, I don’t know if it has more to do with rules or with setup requirements, the aero design of F3 cars is now lot more refined than it was back then.
Another interesting attempt to reduce drag in straight line for Monza was made a few years ago, 2002 by the Petrobras F.3000 team (Pizzonia was one of the drivers). They mounted the flap of the rear wing reversed and that allowed to gain about 7-8 km/h on straight line (top speed for F3000 cars was in the order of 265 km/h) and even if the car wasn’t good in corners, such advantage in straight line speed is a huge help during the race.
The solution was then declared illegal and the cars DQ on the basis that F.3000 was a single spec series and to mount the element that way wasn’t in accordance with original design. Actually more teams tested the solution during earlier collective tests but they all agreed to not use it for the race. Petrobras team followed the agreement for qualifying and then modified the wing on the grid just minutes before the race...
Too bad, this is now illegal after the 2004 endplate rules. I would love to see how people come up with special low-drag aero. Maybe a fin like the BAR Bonneville 400 car?
