At the Valencia test this week, F1′s governing body gave teams more details about the operation of the mandatory moveable rear wings in 2011.

Drivers have been experimenting with the overtaking aid this week, with observers able to visibly see the rear wing open up on the straight to stall the downforce before it is clicked back into place at the braking zone.

It has been feared that if chasing drivers are allowed to press the rear wing button too often, overtaking will become commonplace and uninteresting.

So the FIA has told teams that if the chasing car is within a certain time of his rival – say, one second – he will be allowed to activate the wing only within a 600-metre zone at the end of a straight.

These zones will reportedly be marked out with white lines, and Guardian correspondent Richard Williams reported that the one second gap will be calculated at the corner before the designated straight.

“Further information, going into detail and the various scenarios still has to be clarified,” said Ferrari’s technical director Aldo Costa, adding that the wings for now will not be operated in the wet.

“Then it will be a case of seeing how things go in the race to understand how to proceed,” he added, suggesting that the rules may be tweaked depending on the outcome of the initial races.

The early feedback from the drivers is that, combined with preparing and triggering KERS and watching for the rear wing green light, their cockpit workload is increasingly unreasonable.

“It’s just not enjoyable — pressing buttons, changing gear, pressing and holding,” said Rubens Barrichello.

Of the newer generation, however, Fernando Alonso said he was beginning to get his head around the new functions after a few days in the car.

The old guard is unconvinced.

“It’s not motor racing. It’s calculation,” slammed Swiss ex-driver and German-language commentator Marc Surer.

Team Lotus’ technical boss Mike Gascoyne thinks the FIA is right to flag possible changes to the rear wing rules this year.

“I don’t think we’re going to get it right straight away,” he predicted, admitting his own concerns about the loss of racing’s purity.

“Some of the greatest drives were by people like Gilles Villeneuve, holding off the rest of the field. Are you going to say ‘Well, that’s never going to happen any more’?”

Another fear is that chasing drivers will call off a genuine overtaking attempt on another part of the circuit in order to simply press the button in the designated 600-metre zone.

But F1′s most successful driver, Michael Schumacher, backs the concept.

“It’s a good innovation,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“We know that in F1 we have a problem with cars following other ones. If there is no dramatic change in the ratio between aerodynamic and mechanical grip, you need something else. This might help,” added the German.

And Schumacher said he doubts pressing the button will make overtaking easy.

“There is no button for just driving past someone. It could be that we just close the gap and get in the slipstream to start a fight. Or it could be that it’s not quite enough.”

Ferrari’s Costa agrees: “Our calculations say that it (600m) is on the edge.”

When everything is rosy red, with black and silver one looks for Red Bull Hockenheim is not brilliant. The Grand Prix of Germany was the great show of Ferrari. Fernando Alonso put in a hard battle over 67 rounds through with difficulty, hardship, great determination and the kind assistance of the team to his stable mate Felipe Massa. Sebastian Vettel was in third place in the fight for victory do little.

Massa had laid the foundation for a beautiful duel by a rocket launch. When the box was sent to the great journey, Vettel and Alonso blocked in the battle for the top one another, the Brazilian shot by loosely at his side. The Heppenheim also got second place even to his Spanish rival, the Ferrari-train could pull away again.

Behind the leading trio, Lewis Hamilton had the better top speed may push past the McLaren in the first round to Mark Webber. The Briton made his Australian opponent in the braking zone before the hairpin, no chance. For Webber, the already difficult race was later complicated. Even Jenson Button came through a better strategy yet by him.

Front left Alonso in the fight for the victory of patience in the meantime. On lap 20 his efforts culminated in an attack on Massa, who fought but successful. “This is ridiculous”, sparked fury of Asturias to the pits. He had hoped that one on him vorbeilotst Brazilians – but not yet. Alonso was unnerved to fall back to three seconds later to start a new hunt.

With fast laps he pushed himself up again to Massa. It was clear who is the faster Ferrari man. About 25 laps later Alonso finally got his way. With a few well-concealed position request to exchange Massa was slowed, the ostentatiously went to the hairpin on the gas and pull Alonso did. “Sorry,” were the words of Massa engineer Rob Smedley to his protege sad.

“Adjutant” Massa had the remaining 15 laps, only one job: controlling Vettel. The Red Bull Local Hero had been able to conserve his tires for a long time and threatened to catch up to the top. While Alonso was able to free forward well, made the German more and more pressure on Massa. Vettel was the last Rendrittel many fast laps, but was again thrown back lapping at something. Massa thus saved second place before the Germans.
While the British silver arrows drove into Hamilton ahead of Button in order to Paarflug places four and five, the concerns of the German Silver Arrows were clearly visible. Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher caught behind Mark Webber (Red Bull) and Robert Kubica (Renault) in the stands while eight and nine points, but were overtaken both! Mercedes was in phases two seconds slower than the top.

The last point landed Renault rookie Vitaly Petrov at number ten. could do little, the two Williams drivers Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg, both of which fell back immediately at the start and were later able to make little impression. Adrian Sutil had to make three pit stops and ended up in 17th place, Timo Glock was with his rank behind Virgin’s best driver of the three new teams. The Swiss Sébastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) was eliminated early after a collision with his teammate Jaime Alguersuari.
TMS