TBK-Light.com

-Widetrack of 2 meters instead of 1,8m
-Softer (compared to now) Slicks
-Downforce decrease by 50% compared to 2006 levels (see measures taken to do that below)
-lap times slower by 5 seconds compared to 2006 lap times
-Banning of winglets
-Front wing lowered (from 15cm to 7,5Cm) and widened (from 145 to 180cm)
-Limit of the number of elements on the front wing to 2 or 3
-Standard center part for the front wing (reducing turbulence)
-Rear wing higher and narrower (80cm wide (instead of 100) and 95cm tall (instead of 80cm)
-Maybe 3 elements permitted for the rear wing
-Diffuser moved towards the center axle of rear wheels
-Diffuser max steep angle and height increased (max height 17.5cm vs 12cm)
-Adjustable front wing flaps 2 times per lap by 6° max
-KERS, usable about 6,7 seconds (at max power) per lap
-Heating tyre blankets banned

The overall downforce (and probably aerodynamic efficiency, which is a bit sad but..) will be decreased by those following measures:

-ban of winglets: winglets can be seen as flow conditionners, they help the main elements (namely the wings and underfloor) to produce better downforce (and decreasing drag).

If one those winglet is not present, dramatic reductions of downforce are observed (up to 10%) so if all are banned, it is easy to imagine what the result will be.

-limiting the front/rear wing number of elements. By limiting the number of elements on the wings you limit the amount of downforce because in general, the more elements you have the more downforce you have (for a given drag)

-narrowing of the rear wing: by narrowing the rear wing, you force the rear wing to be settled at a great angle to achieve the same goal, which will be at the expense of drag so it won't be possible.

-Rear wing, diffuser decoupling: Actually the rear wing helps the diffuser to extract the air beneath the car, this is one a the major source of turbulence (the "dirty air") today, by shortening the diffuser and highering the rear wing you prevent the two from working together.

-A very natural measure will be that you can't increase too much the downforce on the front wing because you'll get a too much overtseer car.

Those measures a more aimed at preventing the teams to regain downforce over the years (till the next regulations change which will be in 2013) than achieving the 50% downforce cut..in fact nobody, neither the fIA neither the OWG is naive about the fact teams will have dowforce cuts by less than 50% but still the roots are there to prevent an inflation of downforce.


Another measure is a bit unclear now:
-limiting the angle at which a wing can be set. This is the most efficient maneuver, the downforce increase linearily with the angle at which the wing is tilted (called the "Angle of attack").
A wing can range from as little as 6° to more than 30° that actually means a 5 fold downforce increase capacity (but with and increase of drag), limiting it is a simple measure that help preventing that.

The thing is that in 2009 drivers will be able to increase one front wing flap (element) angle to gain downforce (as i have said above, increasing the angle is a major way to increase downforce) 2 times per lap.

This is intended to help in case of following someone from close and if downforce loss is a problem, raising the flap will compensate.



Misc information:

-March The 26th, the WMSC meeting will finalize the 2009 technical rules, the Sporting regulations (containing the budget cap) will be ready in July

-From april 14 to 17, teams will test at barcelone with the new slicks (softer than the previous ones tested in december at jerez). Another test session with slicks will be held in july.

At Valencia it was about 10 or 11 seconds (Massa-Pantano).

I think it's going to be like those reg changes a couple of years ago when the front wing was raised and the rear wing lowered (forget the year now - 2005?).

I don't think anyone's been slower than an F3000 car since Pedro Chaves.

I think the problem in 2005 was the changes they made to the diffuser completely ruined the chance of overtaking because the dirty air was amplified greatly.

Did Chaves even make a Grand Prix?

Didn't even make the real qualifying. 13 DNPQs.

I don't think anyone's been slower than an F3000 car since Pedro Chaves.