Movable Rear Wings - The FIA risking the quality of racing

Flexible Wings In 2011

At the most recent meeting of the World Motorsport Council a number of new Formula One regulations were announced for 2011. Among them was a controversial decision to introduce movable bodywork that can be used to assist overtaking.

Next year, drivers who are closely following another car will be able to adjust their rear wing to help them make an overtaking manoeuvre. The defending driver will not be allowed to make any adjustments, which will make it difficult for them to hold their position.

It's good that the sport's governing body, in association with FOTA, is taking steps to improve the racing but this particular rule is not the best way to achieve that goal. The initial reaction from fans and drivers has been highly negative.

There are numerous problems with the new rules as they currently stand.

THE RULES ARE ARTIFICIAL

The new rules place too much emphasis on overtaking instead of close racing, and there’s a big difference between the two. A pass for position isn’t worth anything, and isn’t exciting, if it’s not the product of a good battle. Flexible wings that are available only to attacking drivers will create artificial overtaking manoeuvres that add little to the quality of actual racing.

Mark Webber summed it up nicely when he said "It is good for the PlayStation I think, but I don't know how well it is going to work in F1 ... Overtaking moves should be about pressurising, being skilful, and tactical. Yes we want to see more overtaking, of course we do, we know that, but we also need to keep the element of skill involved in overtaking and not just hitting buttons, like KERS, like adjustable rear wings".

Flexible wings are a gimmick that will take all the skill out of overtaking and a great manoeuvre will lose its significance. Overtaking is a non-event in NASCAR because it is so common and so easy, and this new rule is a step in that direction.

The rules give an unfair advantage to the attacking driver. Just as there is an art to making a good overtaking manoeuvre, there is also an art to defending position. Michael Schumacher's driving in China and Canada is a good example of that. These regulations remove defensive driving by making it almost impossible to hold position on a long straight.

This would be especially unfair on the final lap at a circuit like Canada where a long straight leads into the final corner. There is nothing wrong with an exciting slipstream battle to the finish and it was common at Monza during the pre-chicane days. However, there is something wrong with that scenario if one car has an obvious technical advantage over the other.

THE RULES ARE TOO COMPLICATED

Complex rules are not good rules. They are harder to understand and are harder to police, and F1 should be looking to simplify the sporting regulations wherever possible.

Drivers will only be allowed to adjust their rear wing if they have completed two laps of the race, have been notified by the car's ECU the system has been activated, and are less than one second behind another car at a select number of "predetermined" locations around the circuit. The system will then be deactivated when the driver hits the brakes, and the process starts again.

Try explaining that as it happens to someone who is watching the sport for the first time. Attracting casual fans to the sport with rules they can barley understand does not seem to make much sense.

In addition to making the nuances of racing difficult to understand, the regulations would also be difficult to police. The World Motorsport Council statement indicated this would be managed via the standard Electronic Control Unit, but it still leaves the door open for a lot of things to go wrong.

THE RULES ARE NOT EVEN REQUIRED

Bahrain has been the only 'boring' race this year as the other seven events have featured varying level of action. The Canadian Grand Prix was proof that overtaking already happens in F1 with 60 manoeuvres occurring during the race.

The sport doesn't need complex rules or artificial racing to improve the show when other options such as new tyre specifications and reduced aerodynamics have not been exhausted.

Overtaking on a straight is not a great spectacle anyway. It's far more exciting to watch two drivers fighting each other under braking, or accelerating out of a corner, and that would be more common if the rule changes placed an emphasis on close racing as opposed to overtaking.

MOVING FORWARD

The concept of moveable bodywork is not necessarily a bad one, but if it's introduced, drivers should be able to adjust their wings at any time regardless of their position. This will still ensure the feature could be used tactically, but would not be complex and would not detract from the skill of racing.

The FIA's push to make the show more exciting may actually end up having the opposite effect.

Posted by Martin Porter. - Follow him on twitter @mpondaweb.

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