F1. Possible new wing design

FIA unveils radical wing concept

Formula One racing’s governing body, the FIA, has revealed plans for an innovative rear-wing design which it says could dramatically increase the amount of overtaking in the sport.
The FIA's Centreline Downwash Generating (CDG) Wing design. October 24, 2005. © FIAThe Centreline Downwash Generating (CDG) Wing is effectively two small rear wings - one over each wheel - with a clear gap in between. This gap would create a wake in which a following car would generate more downforce, allowing them to run much closer to the car in front through corners, hence making passing easier.

The FIA hopes to see the design introduced as early as 2007 in conjunction with a return to wider wheels and slick tyres. The idea will be presented to a meeting of the Formula One Commission in London on Monday, where future regulations will be discussed.

The CDG Wing marks the first results of the FIA’s collaboration with technology partners AMD, researching ways of improving the aerodynamic performance of a car when trying to overtake.

“This new research is important for the future of Formula One,” said FIA President, Max Mosley. “By introducing the CDG wing we can give motor sport fans exactly what they have asked for, wheel-to-wheel racing with much more overtaking.

“It is our hope that the teams will collaborate with us in the optimisation of this radical new idea so that the aerodynamic benefits can be introduced into Formula One in 2007 rather than having to wait until 2008.”

Major revisions to the aerodynamic regulations introduced in 2005 achieved their objective of cutting speeds. The downside was increasingly intricate bodywork designs which created high levels of turbulence behind the cars, making it more difficult for following cars to overtake.

MEAN!1!!11!1

good idea

I smell desperation ..

Wouldn't go that far, well maybe, really need to see crowd numbers for that, anything that improves the sport is Aok by me

The other quirky thing about this is it will mean having a wing behind each rear wheel instead of a centre-mounted/central wing as is the common configuration on pretty much every winged racing car in the world.

BH!
Rob W

check out the wing design on the Ferrari FXX

thats just like what they are proposing by the look of it

Oh wicked, another thing to give Ferrari a competitive advantage.

Ah well, cest la vie.

Go A1GP and the power boost button!

The power boost button blows.

It's just making up for shortcomings in the car elsewhere.

The biggest thing in F1 that worries me is the possibility of them going back to one tyre manufacturer.

Michelin have done a good job of getting up to speed in less than half the time of Bridgestone in general.

Ferrari get ALL of Bridgestone's type testing and now they're going the back-door way to try to get things back on a level playing field. Max Mosely must get soo many bjs from Jean Todd.

BH!
Rob W

So funny how rule changes almost always favour Ferrari. This year was a screw up tyre-wise, but only because Bridgestone spend all their time on Ferrari and didn't have the body of data that Michelin do from all of their teams.

Think back.. over previous years.

McLaren desings a Berylium engine block... lighter, less heat problems.. better in every-way.

Ferrari knew they were screwed for an entire season at least... and what do you know? Shortly before the season starts McLaren are told they cannot use their engines because it now fits under the revised rare/exotic materials category. (which it didn't when they were designing it).

Just one of many similar cases. Ferrari get what they want. Always via Max Mosely. Michelin ONLY entered F1 to be in competition... and they've done a great job. A single tyre series might be fairer, but tyre technology development slows to a halt when that happens.

BH!
Rob W

so in other words, F1 is ghey, and A1 rules hey, at least its fair.

What you describe Rob about Ferrari and McLaren happens in every motorsport, 1 team comes up with an obvious advantage, another team finds out and protests, so to keep it fair the rules get changed so no one can use it, happens everywhere. Perfect example is what happened in the Mazda Pro7 series last season where some guys had housings with wider ports, happened to be the guys up the front, someone got wind further done the field and protested, now no one can use the wider port housings.

I disagree with your first part. No sport was supposed to be fair in the sense that a rugby team can have as many 110kgs as they want, or a team of specialist kckers or runners. It's the balance that makes the difference. And that's what seperates F1 teams from each other. Not just money. Jordan had Mike Gasgoine for a year and their car improved massively without anything like the budget of the top teams (they even won a race with a progression of that car early in the next season).

F1 is inherently different to A1 in that it is supposed to be the forefront of technology. In A1GP the cars are actually irrelevant. They could be racing go-carts or modified mini's. But they chose open-wheelers pretty much to follow the path that F1 has given to technology as the fasted way around a track within standard size, weight, engine capacity, tyres etc.

But A1GP still added a compulsary tyre change to make sure the results were often screwed with. And in only three races this has been proven so.

F1 is not about fairness. ANYONE can possibly come up with a particular development, there's nothing stopping anyone else. So naturally people like Mike Gasgoine and Adrian Newey are always in very high demand. But where are these people in A1GP? Nowhere.

Nothing good for motoring will come from A1GP as it is now. But F1 can be credited with literally hundred of new ideas which have flowed into production cars, not to mention pretty much all other forms of racing. So too have the V8s, Rally cars, motorbikes etc.

I the end a standard car format like A1GP will be a series of 'fair' motoring. These series are never that popular compared to competitive ones. (Even Nascar allows certain improvements to cars despite being basically a stock-car series.)

The problem with F1 is that rule changes which would appear to favour Farrari happen like clock-work, but never the other way around unless as this year by mistake.. which they're being pretty quick about fixing shortly.

BH!
Rob W

umm ok.... have you ever been involved with motorsport Rob? or driven yourself? Don't get me wrong, F1 is the absolute pinnacle of motorsport engineering, what those cars can do is amazing, but F1 as a whole doesn't seem to be doing too well, because they've lost focus, this is why A1GP IMHO is a bloody good idea, it comes down to driver skill and coutry vs country which is what its all about, anyone can build a better car but is that really winning? (within reason). F1 is the only motorsport I know apart from WRC that has a constructors championship (must be more especially in europe but I can't watch everything) which distorts the true meaning of motor racing, which is good hard close racing between skilled drivers.

Im all for little improvements here and there to get on top of the competition (because they are doing exactly the same) but all within reason, its why cars get tech'd so hard, to keep things fair.

What is trulely wrong with A1GP cars? really? 550BHP out of something that weighs 690kg with a ground effect chassis, imagine driving one, that sort of power is kick ass, my Skyline produces 450BHP in a chassis that weighs around 1450kg, my car is fuckin quick for a street car but it doesn't compare to A1GP, forget F1, that shit is crazy, my car when im finish will top 300kmh (rotorua land speed trials, one of my many goals to get to) which is damn impressive but fails to compare, in short A1GP is kick ass, but then again, I like watching Mazda Pro7's with standard 12A motors putting out less than 200BHP with a top speed of around 215kmh race hell for leather close as, maybe Im just a physco motorsport fan but any racing is good racing, doesn't have to be elite..