A car can have a sideslip angle which is the angle at which the car is sliding at... which should ideally be quite low. What these wings do IMO, is make air go around the mid central part of the car and reduce drag... ie. tidy up airflow over the car. Then the two trails of air rejoin themselves at the back to create downforce.

Quote from axus :

A car can have a sideslip angle which is the angle at which the car is sliding at... which should ideally be quite low. What these wings do IMO, is make air go around the mid central part of the car and reduce drag... ie. tidy up airflow over the car. Then the two trails of air rejoin themselves at the back to create downforce.

sideslip angle? not something I've ever heard of. How is it measured? Seems to me that what you are actually describing is yaw.

Two more pics of the wings:
http://www.adrivo.com/bilder/480L/0063538.jpg
http://eur.news1.yimg.com/eur. ... 0060714/09/3319789782.jpg
Seems like they're pointing inwards.

Anyhow, the pull-to-side effect from one of these winglets would be very very small, and the other wing would probably destroy any benefit the first one brought. I simply refuse to believe that the wing-effect of these things has any use at all. It would totally not be worth the hassle of having a higher drag, so there has to be something more benefiting behind it, which is tidying up the airflow, IMO.

Oh, and just because they're F1 teams does not mean that everything they say is a lie. :rolleyes:

It can be defined as yaw angle yes. As you said the car doesnt actually go where the tyres are pointing (unless at slow enough speed -> ackerman steering)
The primary airflow will hit the car at a slight angle when cornering it wont be straight down the middle.

Its why some wings have fences to them to impede flow along the span of the wing.
Most notable for this are the Subaru Impreza WRC and the Mitsubishi Evo 8 WRC's rear wings are designed to sustain down force levels whilst the car is being 'drifted' around the corner. Rally cars intentionally induce oversteer to get more turn in. These wings just increase the stability of the tail and make it more progressive (Anti stall)

BMW.Sauber F1.06 - built for drifting at the rally track!
:doh:

They just lead the air around the big buldge of the driver and the engine and everything in that area. And yes, sideslip angle is just another term for yaw.

Quote from axus :

BMW.Sauber F1.06 - built for drifting at the rally track!
:doh:

They just lead the air around the big buldge of the driver and the engine and
everything in that area. And yes, sideslip angle is just another term for yaw.

Yeah, that would be my guess also. That and it 'breaks up the air
particules' which is something that various technologies have tried to
adapt. It's like that 'fish scale' swiming suits which was found to reduce
the drag compared to a slick suit which basically acts like velcro in the
water in comparision. although it's very hard to tell, by that pic they
appear to be slightly angled outwards (toe-in..) guiding the air around
the cockpit.

To those complaining about 'modern' racing being about exploiting rules
more than anything, time to wake up, it's been like this for quite some
time. Like, forever. One recent example (70's), Lotus. As long as F1 will
be more about the cars than the pilots, it will be like this. Having a race
with controlled identical cars where the pilots are the major variable is
the only way out, even then, some will go on a diet or something to gain that extra edge...

Quote from axus :

BMW.Sauber F1.06 - built for drifting at the rally track!
:doh:

They just lead the air around the big buldge of the driver and the engine and everything in that area. And yes, sideslip angle is just another term for yaw.

ok cool

Now all we have to hope is that BMW sucks this weekend, so no other team puts those... things in their cars.

I was mearly making a reference to the use of multiple fences jees.

The 'fish scale' swimsuits you reference to, are an attempt to clone the compliant surfaces found on many waterbourne creatures most notably dolphins.
A compliant surface is believed to provide a matching layer between the density difference of the solid body and the passing fluid. The texture also helps to dampen out Tollmien-Schlichting waves formation which are a primary cause for turbulent flow thus delaying transition to turbulent boundary layer thus reduces drag. The exact matching surface is difficult to calculate and will change along the legnth of the body which is why dolphins have distinct sections where the pattern changes.

One effect it will have is every team will now be mocking it up in the wind tunnel just like the walrus williams nose cone of a few years ago

Quote from Gentlefoot :

Slip angle is the difference in angle between the wheel rim and the tyre contact patch as you turn the wheel. It is nothing to do with the angle of the car itself. A car cannot have a slip angle. A tyre on the other hand, can.

wrong ... its the angle between the diection the tyre id going and where its pointing at ... and since f1 cars peak somewhere in the range of 6-8° afaik the whole car is sideways at about 8° during corners

so the fins most likely push the car inwards to some degree

Quote from Qurpiz :

Now all we have to hope is that BMW sucks this weekend, so no other team puts those... things in their cars.

And I thought modern F1 cars couldn't look anymore uglier.