XcraigX wrote: ↑2 years ago
Ruslan wrote: ↑2 years ago
XcraigX wrote: ↑2 years ago
The evidence is amazingly clear that F1 has a HUGE AERO PROBLEM. The turbulence put out by these cars is way too high to allow good racing. (It almost makes me wonder if some of the teams are now adding additional turbulence to their aero package as a defense mechanism.) They could have solved this years ago, but they let the teams have too much input and allow small constant changes with no consequence.
Yea, I keep suggesting that we just ban wings. So far in all the various forums I have been on, I have had only one person agree with me.
We shall see how the latest Ross Brawn fix works for 2022. It is another tweak or an actual solution?
I think banning wings is not needed (evidence: F2 and Indycar). But instead simplifying the wings to a single fixed and a single adjustable element. Perhaps with a Gurney flap on the back. Maybe even return to flat floor venturi devices. Unfortunately, wings are here to stay in open wheel cars. But the number of sophisticated and expensive aero bits need to go away along with the rear diffuser.
.
I agree with you that if they could get rid of most of those add ons and winglets the situation would improve, but why do we take for granted that wings are here to stay?
Let's put things into perspective for a moment: what is the purpose of wings? to make the cars faster. We all accept that since wings make cars faster they have a legitimate place in F1. Pity that we don't use the same standard for most other devices that make cars faster, if we were to accept any device that makes a car faster we would have to accept unrestricted 5000cc turbocharged engines using hyper-performing fuel, we could easily see cars with 3000 bhp. And we would still have full ground effect cars, possibly weighting as little as 350 kilograms. The list could go on for ages, the point that I'm trying to make is that more often that not a new device is introduced in F1, it is fully developed and adopted by everyone, and when it becomes too much it gets seriously curbed or banned altogether. This rule applies to most technical devices, with a notable exception: wings. Wings have been around for ages, there is very little scope for some breakthrough innovation with wings, they have had their day and now they have become a liability yet we cannot foresee an F1 without wings. Why is that the case? Are wings good for the racing? no they're not. Are they an area for research that could be useful in our road cars? of course not, no one is even dreaming of this. The only positive of wings that I can think of is that they increase the amount of each car that can be sold to sponsors, and given how current wings are made I'm not even sure that they represent a significant source of income for the teams.
So why are we still seeing cars with wings if we all know that wings is a fully developed technology that cannot be replicated in road cars and not only doesn't improve the show but rather it is probably the single biggest problem that prevents good old fashioned closed racing?
I'd love to know what you guy think of this, I am really struggling to find an answer to that question. The only answer that I can come up with is that wings are great for geeks, wings have become the triumph of engineers over racers, they are the proof that the balance of power inside F1 has shifted from racers to engineers and sadly IMHO engineers have lost sight of the main goal of F1, racing.
You could argue that engineers could come up with very powerful engines, for example, that is true but there's a difference: everyone can understand how an engine works and so everyone can come up with solutions to limit the power of an engine, the same isn't true of wings, wings are not so simple to understand in detail so not everyone can curb their dominance, in effect only an engineer can come up with solutions to limit the effect of wings.
IMHO wings in 2021 are 100% pointless, they don't improve the racing (rather they are the main reason why we don't have good racing), they are not cost effective, they can't be used on road cars and their technology has limited development potential, in a sense they are a waste of time. For that reason I would be 100% in favour of a total ban on wings, I think that this would open many exciting areas for research.
As for junior formulae, they have wings for one reason only: to teach young drivers how to use them in the hope that one day one of them will turn into a GP driver, no other reason whatsoever. I have already talked about my (personal) experience in the junior formulae with ever more complex wings, if junior formulae weren't meant to be a stepping stone to greater things for a lucky few they wouldn't need to train young drivers and wouldn't have wings. Let's try to see this from a different angle: why F. Ford cars don't have super complex wings? you could argue that this is because costs must be kept low but that is not the point, the point is that very few drivers at that stage in their career would know what to do with super complex wings. The point that I'm trying to make is that junior formulae are an ever simplified version of a GP car, ban wings on F1 cars and wings would disappear immediately on junior formulae as well