3 element rear wing?

[John]

The Ferrari and I think Williams have a little secondary rear wing. Shouldn't that count as a third element which I thought was banned?

[News]

On 6/9/2012 8:53 PM, John wrote:
> The Ferrari and I think Williams have a little secondary rear wing. Shouldn't that count as a third element which I thought was banned?
>

Sounds like a little secondary rear wing...

[Bobster]

On Jun 10, 2:53 am, John <qwrtz...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The Ferrari and I think Williams have a little secondary rear wing.  Shouldn't that count as a third element which I thought was banned?

If it's a standalone structure then it can't be an element of another.

[Bigbird]

Are you saying a second rear wing is okay or just playing semantics?

[Bobster]

Who mentioned a 2nd rear wing until now?

It's not "playing semantics" to point out that something that is not
part of the main rear wing is not an element of that wing.

I do recall drawings and pictures earlier this year of aero pieces low
down at the rear of the car. I can't quote book, chapter and verse
right now, but more one than one team had them. Apparently aero pieces
are not excluded from the area in question.

[Bobster]

On Jun 10, 2:53 am, John <qwrtz...@gmail.com> wrote:

> The Ferrari and I think Williams have a little secondary rear wing.  Shouldn't that count as a third element which I thought was banned?

I've looked at the tech regs. There is nothing as simple as "the rear
wing may have no more than X elements".

And where does the rear wing start and end anyway? It's got to be
mounted to the car somewhow, so it doesn't have nice, neat physical
start and end.

What we do find in the regs is this....
3.10 Bodywork behind the rear wheel centre line :
3.10.1 Any bodywork more than 150mm behind the rear wheel centre line
which is between 150mm and 730mm above the reference plane, and
between 75mm and 355mm from the car centre line, must lie in an area
when viewed from the side of the car that is situated between 150mm
and 350mm behind the rear wheel centre line and between 300mm and
400mm above the reference plane. When viewed from the side of the car
no longitudinal vertical cross section may have more than one section
in this area. Furthermore, no part of this section in contact with the
external air stream may have a local concave radius of curvature
smaller than 100mm.

The reference plane is the bottom of the floor of the car with the
plank removed (or, if you like, the top of the plank when the plank is
mounted on the car).

I assume that you're referring to the piece that can be seen low down
at the back of the Williams in this picture....
http://kepfeltoltes.hu/120207/wil_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

So... if that's not more than 150mm above the reference plane then
3.10.1 would not apply.

Assuming 3.10.1 amounts to a control on the number of pieces for the
rear wing (which is complicated by the requirement to have a piece
that can move for purposes of the DRS).

More generally, this is how the rules usually work. Areas are defined
in terms of the reference plane, the centre line of the car, the
center point of the rear wheels and so on and limits placed on what
you can do in various areas. They don't talk in terms of the number of
wings that a car may have. They just define areas of the car and say
what is and what isn't allowed in the various areas.

[Bigbird]

Bobster wrote:

> On Jun 10, 6:21 am, "Bigbird" <Bigbird.usenetNOS...@Gmail.com> wrote:
> > Bobster wrote:
> > > On Jun 10, 2:53 am, John <qwrtz...@gmail.com> wrote:

> > > > The Ferrari and I think Williams have a little secondary rear
> > > > wing.
>

> Who mentioned a 2nd rear wing until now?
>

Read the OP... and you say you're not playing semantics...

[Bobster]

I'm not playing semantics.

Now if you've gor some actual information to impart then please go
ahead.

[WebSlave]

The beam wing right above the diffuser? All teams have it (and have
had it for years, I think).

[AC]

LOL!!!!!!

That is the most "F1" gag I've read in years!!!!

Truly brilliant.

--
AC