F1 2010 Chinese GP, Vettel's final turn for pole

[puddingpants7]

the suspensions on a formula 1 chassis dont move very much. I have thrown that out the window and it does seem like the wing travels a great amount :\

[spankr]

A mouse pointer works just fine for a reference...

[slungbungdungclung]

Also, kudos for spotting the wing deflection 3 months before anybody else really did.

[slungbungdungclung]

Well, it is pretty hard to see just eyeballing it against the chassis. Since the camera is fixed to the chassis, you can use any point/line on the screen as a reference. If you hold up a ruler or a piece of paper against the screen, you can see the suspension does move from 0:19 at top speed before braking to 0:25 on the exit of the slow corner. Looking down at an angle also makes it appear to be less movement than it really is. The wing deflects by about the same degree.

[slungbungdungclung]

I think the wing looks like it's flexing more than it really is. Also account for the suspension travel. After the German GP, the FIA inspected the wings and they were deemed legal on both the Red Bulls and Ferraris. Mclaren are looking into their own flexing wing now.

[txtmstrjoe]

@slungbungdungclung I don't think that suspension travel is a factor, to be honest. F1 cars are set up to be very stiffly sprung, especially on the front end. The other critical thing is the ends of the wing that we can see in the footage appear to move down when the car is accelerating. If we are to accept that suspension travel is responsible for what our eyes are seeing, then that is completely ILLOGICAL as an explanation because the front end of the car should be LIFTING on acceleration.

[slungbungdungclung]

@txtmstrjoe Well the suspension still isn't completely solid. It does move to a subtly visible degree. Try viewing the suspension's movement relative to a fixed point on the screen, then view the movement of the front wing relative to a fixed point as well (I recommend scrolling so that your browser's menu bar lines up with the parts in question). The car runs lower at top speed which is when downforce is highest, and rises a bit after the braking point in the slow corner.

[txtmstrjoe]

@slungbungdungclung Using the chassis as the fixed point in the screen, I can't see the suspension moving much. There is some slight compression on the left front on the long right hander leading onto the straight, but that's as much as I can see. To me the wing endplates are moving appreciably more.

The weird thing to me is that the endplates look like they go up (away from the ground) under braking, while the suspension doesn't look like it compresses much. Aero loads obviously explains this.

[slungbungdungclung]

The front wing indeed does deflect under load, but the degree of deflection is still minuscule compared to the movement of the suspension arms. It just looks like a lot of deflection because of the suspension travel. Relative to the reference plane, that little bit of deflection is legal under the technical regulations. Look at article 3.17.1