2026 car comparisons

[dialtone]

The size of that normal drs slot is tiny on high df circuits when open.

But the wings are already fairly backed off no? Is this an issue any more?

Yeah I’ve been thinking about it and it can’t be just slot size… the alpine solution removes the slot problem and is easier, if Ferrari went another way the benefit is different.

[Luscion]

[AR3-GP]

How would the fail-safe operate on this wing? Its operation is almost certainly electric. If the electric power is disrupted, how would the wing return to the cornering mode?

[Brahmal]

Mclaren vs Aston

Does the Aston have a longer wheelbase? Picture perspective is pretty close.

[AR3-GP]

Mclaren vs Aston

Does the Aston have a longer wheelbase? Picture perspective is pretty close.

In my opinion, yes.

[dialtone]

One potential downside to this wing is that reducing the downforce at the rear too much could increase the tire wear on the straights. The PU has a lot of torque. You need some downforce to stop the rear wheels from slipping.

Meh, technically they can just crank up the camber a little bit to compensate, they can always open it in any straight anyway so the penalty is less, it's going to be very convenient now to just have the wing you need for corners rather than a compromise for corners and straights.

EDIT: Also Fred mentioned that the wing is a prototype still, so they'll probably refine the activation mechanism to reduce its drag penalty before bringing it and using it in races, they probably just wanted to test that it worked on the actual car.

[amr]

They can definitely integrate the actuator a bit better. The actuator looks to be either a worm gear with the worm on top or, less likely, a rack and pinion with the rack on top if the actuator is a linear one.

Either way, they could try to move the worm/rack at the bottom, change the angle to lower the centre of gravity a bit and move most of the volume of the actuator on the other side of the endplate to form a more functional bulge a la Aston Martin.

aaa... my armchair expertise is so good this morning.

[motobaleno]

One potential downside to this wing is that reducing the downforce at the rear too much could increase the tire wear on the straights. The PU has a lot of torque. You need some downforce to stop the rear wheels from slipping.

I don't think so. These cars have a huge amount of DF (even the 2026 cars) with respect to any other sport cars...this DF is calibrated for cornering...in a straight line even a fraction of it is enough.

[Cold Fussion]

That’s discussing modifying the upstream to reduce downstream drag. I don’t see anything in there which suggests the wing tip vortex is reducing drag by altering the vortex of the propeller.

Speaking theoretically, in a flow below the speed of sound (which is propagation speed for mechanical waves in a particular medium), what happens downstream affects what happens upstream.

A good example is in NASCAR, when a car is travelling in clean air with another car close behind, it's less draggy that it would have been had it been travelling alone (of course the car drafting gets an even bigger drag reduction). Check out Table 1 at:

https://www.simscale.com/blog/drafting- ... in-racing/

The same is true in bicycle racing, 2 riders riding in a tight line is more efficient for the leading rider vs riding alone (around 2-5% iirc). This scales to the leading rider of the peleton that is in an arrow head configuration experiencing something like 85% the drag vs riding alone.

[Sansovino]

One potential downside to this wing is that reducing the downforce at the rear too much could increase the tire wear on the straights. The PU has a lot of torque. You need some downforce to stop the rear wheels from slipping.

I don't think so. These cars have a huge amount of DF (even the 2026 cars) with respect to any other sport cars...this DF is calibrated for cornering...in a straight line even a fraction of it is enough.

"You need some downforce to stop the rear wheels from slipping." Won't really matter when they have largely already gone through the toughest acceleration phase until they reach the activation point. Less downforce on the straights with x- mode should also be beneficial in preserving tyre life over a race stint.

[matteosc]

Not so sure the "air brake" is a significan effect or even a desired one. They would rather recover that energy with the electric motor.

[Farnborough]

Braking (regeneration) through rear tyres can give instability, as we've seen.

Drag from rear wing doesn't do that.

Potentially, a blending of those two characteristics could give benefit at critical juncture.

[FittingMechanics]

Even if it could stay open for longer, why would you use an aero brake.

You would have lower downforce and the car would be unstable at the exact moment you want maximum downforce (start of braking). Not to mention you would lower the amount of energy you can recover.

You want the wing in maximum downforce position before you hit the brakes.

[matteosc]

Braking (regeneration) through rear tyres can give instability, as we've seen.

Drag from rear wing doesn't do that.

Potentially, a blending of those two characteristics could give benefit at critical juncture.

I would disagree. Regeneration through the rear can give instability if it is not handled correctly. And you can say the same for "aero brake", especially considering that it would last a fraction of a second, with all sort of transitional flows.

Some of the instability that we see from energy recovery will likely disappear as they improve and fine tune the software.

[AR3-GP]

It's clear that it's intended for specific races. Remember that Ferrari goes all out to win Monza every year. We will see this wing there, las vegas, Baku, China.

On the contrary, if the theory for how it works is true this is more useful in high DF races rather than low DF.

Plus if this gains 5-7kph, they need every single one of them in every race to counter the illegal engine.

1) There's no longer a distinction between high and low downforce races because of the active aero and the reduced size of the rear wing box. All races will have high downforce in cornering mode and use the active aero on the straights.

2) The real distinction now will be circuits with long straights and circuits with short straights. The wing takes a longer time to re-attach the airflow when it closes so driver has to disable it earlier or brake earlier and more gradually. That would be a big hindrance on circuits with many shorter straights like Monaco, Singapore, Japan, etc. The best case for this wing is circuits with very long straights where they gain so much time in the straight that braking slightly earlier doesn't matter.