McLaren's flexing front wing

[sportsman]

Although HRT didn't last year, having only one wing.

Monza is going to be interesting with regards to teams being fast in qualifying due to DRS then falling back in the race.

Thats all they had last year. "A wing and prayer"

 

[tranquility2k9]

I heard that having that kind of wing movement would give them a higher top speed on the straights and also introduce more favorable balance (on the under-steer side) going into high speed corners.

I can pretty much confirm that this is not some kind of hoax from the Spanish media. I've seen a lot of credible sources (Adam Cooper, Scarbs, Rival Engineers, etc) talking about it and the reply from Charlie Whiting is completely legitimate. It is either one of 3 things, a weird manufacturing fault, a clever performance enhancement, or an attempt to get the rules made more strict in order to hurt Red Bull. I'm pretty sure it'd be the 2nd and I think it is unfair if McLaren get told they have to change it even if their front-wing passes the required tests, because Red Bull were clearly doing things they shouldn't to observers via video and pictures yet so long as they passed the tests, it was deemed legit.

 

[tranquility2k9]

On a brief little side note, you know Hamilton mentioned they had an upgrade that they tested on Friday, which would have given at least 2 tenths of performance, but they didn't choose to race it for reliability reasons. Well, no one truely knows what it is, but seeming as they raced their new front-wing and rear-wing (I think), then it is likely to be something on the rear floor / diffuser area. A new slot opening near the diffuser at the end of the upper rear floor has been spotted:- http://yfrog.com/h4zkfuoj (click the pic to enlarge)

This looks similar to the slots used to blow the starter motor hole with normal airflow, spotted on Red Bull's floor when their floor was lifted up in the tight pit-lane complex at Monaco.