Mercedes’ innovative front wing design appears to go against the intention of Formula 1’s technical rules, says one of the key men behind the regulations.
The W15’s upper front wing flap is very thin at the point where it meets the car’s nose. This allows the design to fulfil the rule requiring the surface to be continuous.
How Formula 1’s chief technical officer Pat Symonds believes Mercedes have done this to recreate the ‘outwashing’ effect for aerodynamic gain. F1 tried to reduce this phenomenon with the rules it introduced in 2022 in order to aid overtaking.
Symonds said that while the wing may be considered legal at the moment, the FIA could take steps to clamp down on such designs.
“In article three [of the technical regulations], which really dictates how the aerodynamic shapes are produced, it’s very clear in the opening statement that the aim of the rules is to ensure we get this close following,” he told the official F1 channel.
“So really, when you start to get things that are perhaps producing some outwash, and here I think what we’re seeing is really trying to reinstate quite a strong vortex to push that very turbulent air that’s coming from the front wheels aside, one question then is that really within the spirit of the rules?
“It’s within the regulations, it’s within the letter of the law – there’s absolutely no doubt about it. Is it the sort of thing we want? Well, I don’t know. That’s perhaps a bit more debatable. But I think we need to know really how strong is the effect.
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“The FIA now have a very good aerodynamic group, the group that used to work for me, that are capable of looking at these things and saying ‘actually there’s nothing wrong with that’ or ‘no, hang on, this is starting a trend we don’t really want to see’. They will have seen that.”
The current front wing regulations were written with the goal of reducing aerodynamic ‘outwash’, which makes it difficult for cars to follow each other closely. This was a key aim of the rules introduced two years ago, and also led to the addition of new bodywork on the inside of the front wheels.
Symonds, who was previously an engineer for Benetton and Williams, believes Mercedes’ design runs the risk of undermining efforts to improve the quality of racing.
“It’s more a question of what’s good for the sport rather than what’s…
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