Monday 5th April 2010 - PlanetF1.com Ferrari working 'flat out' on f-duct Ferrari are working hard to introduce an f-duct system to their F10 having witnessed the advantage it handed McLaren in Malaysia. The f-duct, which on McLaren's car is controlled by the drivers knee blocking airflow to the rear wing, is believed to be McLaren a 6mph advantage down the straights. And this was evident around the Sepang circuit, which has some of the longest straights on the F1 calendar. During Friday's practices, Lewis Hamilton was fastest through the speed trap at 303km/h, 6km/h faster than his nearest rival. "On the system of McLaren, for sure we are working flat out at home, because we saw the benefit that seems to be very, very big above all in the main straight with certain conditions, I would say stalling of the rear wing," said team boss Stefano Domenicali. "But we will bring as soon as everything will be reliable, and we will be 100% sure that the system will work."
Lewis sure was not pulling away from the Renault during the swerving debacle. Perhaps drafting is still viable just the car behind looses down force as claimed. Lewis was just trying to break the tow which is perfectly fine. It was not blocking. IMO Ferrari will catch up to all the others current tricks out there and have a mean machine by the end of the year.
+1, some extra km/h should be nice! Looking forward to see how the new mirrors affects the aero. I also hope that they sort their engine problems. Alonso have gone thru some already, and the season is only in the beginning!
I'm sure when the McLaren is on it's own it's 6kph. When it's drafting though it has to be a good 10mph. The way that car pulls the car in front of it in is wicked!
Probably, but China is 2 weeks from now so they can run a lot of simulations right now and build some stuff. F duct would help a lot on the back straight of China....
Anyone have a pic and/or detailed description of an F-duct??? (shouldn't this thread's title have "Rear Spoiler" in it???)
ScarbsF1blog has a pretty good review of the Sauber F-duct http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/sauber-f-duct-detail/ and if you look back in his older entries he has a few up close pics of the Sauber's ducts and a small review of the Mclarens f-duct.
Perfect. Thank you very much. (I always suspected that Hami and Butt-on were getting "blow" jobs during the race. Now I KNOW they are.)
... having recently recruited Toyota's old aerodynamicist Ferrari discovered, "...HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM." CEO's worst nightmare, Ferrari intellectually evolved its F10 up the wrong branch of its decision tree. Their F10 is fundamentally defective... Montezemolo grinding enamel... he has the factory going 24/7-365 at Maranello, three shifts, rolling out a brand new car. By mid-season, Massa and Alonzo are going to have a brand new car (e.g., the F10b-car). And, that new car is going to be fast-fast-fast. Regards, ~ Samuel
