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Ferrari’s front wing, more of a hindrance than a help?
In Bahrain there was a lot of talk about the rear wing on the new Ferrari 248F1 with several of the Italian team’s opposition complaining to the sports governing body, the FIA. However, not long after the action got underway in Malaysia a week later, it was the front wings in the middle of the controversy.
Television pictures of the car on the track showed that the upper flap was moving horizontally under load, which opened a gap between the flap and the nose. According to our spies in Malaysia, as soon as this was witnessed, Honda’s Geoff Willis, Renault’s Pat Symonds and McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh rounded up a total of nine signatures and took them to the FIA to demand an immediate change to the Ferrari setup by the morning of the race and if it failed to happen, then they threatened to protest the situation after the race.
As a result, the FIA measured the wing once again this time by completing a static load test, applying 50 kg to the wing. The deflection was within the allowed tolerances (5 mm vertical, 2 mm horizontal) but the other teams argued that in reality, the wing has to withstand 300 kg, not 50 and that under that load the gap clearly opens far more that 2 millimetres. But, regardless, Patrick Head reminded them that ‘any moveable aerodynamic device is illegal.’
Arguments that Ferrari should not take part in the Malaysian GP were rejected by Williams however, because just one week earlier in Bahrain McLarens midship wing over the gearbox did the exact same thing they were accusing Ferrari of, but McLaren were allowed to use it at Sakhir and then change it for Malaysia. In fact, this little wing was fixed with the engine cover just 7 days later. So therefore the FIA suggested that the same should apply to Ferrari and they have until Melbourne to fix the problem.
Nobody protested this solution, however, BMW’s Willy Rampf supported Ferrari in the matter, claiming that in his opinion, the wing wouldn’t have given them any advantage, in fact, it would have had the opposite effect…
“Every front wing deflects under load. As a consequence the upper flap moves as well. If Ferrari fixes it tightly with the nose, the endplates would break,” he told our Malaysian spies. “I think that the gap that opens up at the nose is more detrimental than good, because it provokes small turbulences.”
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