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Driver adjustable wing levels?


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#1 F1 Mike

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Posted 11 June 2022 - 12:52

Was just browsing some bits about 2009 and I had completely forgotten about the motorised front wing flaps which could be changed by the driver twice a lap from the cockpit to aid overtaking.

Does anyone remember why they gave up on that idea? Whilst I'm not a huge fan of current DRS, I actually like the idea of moveable wings fully controlled by the driver.

Do you think this could be looked at again for both front and rear, with more freedom of their use over the lap? Without specific activation lines there would be less mischief like we have seen in Saudi for example

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#2 noikeee

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Posted 11 June 2022 - 12:55

IIRC it didn't really work. It was supposed to fight off the dirty air and get the car more stable in dirty air by increasing downforce, but it didn't do anything to fight that off, and just became another performance thing where they'd use it every lap to optimise laptime.

#3 onewingedangel

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Posted 11 June 2022 - 13:18

I believe it ended up being used to adjust balance as the tyres wore across a stint rather than being used to adjust in dirty air.

A more nuanced active aero than the current DRS would be interesting, but I don't know if it would improve the show and would likely increase costs.