Zoom Passing very hard to achieve in 2008

Brimmed with fuel last Sunday in Singapore, Jarno Trulli was something of a mobile chicane during the early laps of the race as he ran ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Williams. Those early laps saw Trulli lapping up to five seconds a lap slower than race leader Felipe Massa with the frustrated Rosberg bobbing around behind and unable to find a way to pass.

Rosberg did eventually make the move and quickly pulled away at many seconds a lap but the situation highlighted a major problem in Formula One at the moment and that is passing – and the lack of it.

Writing for the Independent this week David Tremayne put together a piece on the Overtaking Working Group (OWG) and the steps they have taken to try and spice up the show for the 2009 season. The OWG has the blessing of the FIA and pools the talents from Ferrari, McLaren and Renault to seek aerodynamic solutions that enable passing to be possible in the sport without being too easy.

A few years ago in what was then the CART championship, the Handford Device (named after then Swift Aerodynamicist Mark Handford) was introduced. The idea was pretty simple in that the rear wing had a dirty great big vertical flap that created drag punched a hole in the air. The problem was that at some circuits such as Michigan, the device worked so well that no one wanted to lead the race. The result was that all the cars hung back until the final lap as they knew if they took the lead before then, they would be a sitting duck and then fall down the order.

With fixed solutions seemingly not an option, movable aerodynamic devices made news in Formula One back in 2006 when Renault’s Tuned Mass Damper was suddenly declared illegal, but for 2009 there is a change of tactic as certain aerodynamic devices can be moved.

The OWG is rather unique in that it is a cross-team collaboration which aims to make passing possible if the car chasing, is as little as a second a lap faster than the car in front. 2009 will see major changes to the cars with many aero appendages removed for a sleeker more elegant look, the front wing will be lower and wider and the rear wing higher and smaller. One interesting aspect however is that the front wing can be adjusted by the driver.

The idea is that the driver will be able to manually change the angle of the front wing twice per lap whilst running behind a competitor. The front wing can be changed by up to six degrees whilst running in the wake of the car ahead but once clear, the wing is reduced to its optimum for running in free air.