McLaren may have got it wrong when designing its bespoke rear wing for Monza, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.
“If you walk up and down the pitlane you’ll see that some cars have a wing on that looks like the thickness of two sheets of paper,” said the team’s Jenson Button.

Auto Motor und Sport reports that McLaren’s is visibly the biggest of them all.

Last year, Button surprised the paddock by performing strongly with a notably big rear wing at Monza, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton – and the rest of the field – wore traditionally-thin Monza wings.

Button’s decision paid off in 2010 because of the drag-shedding F-duct, which could be deployed anywhere around the circuit, with the big wing producing more grip in the corners.

But in 2011, the similar ‘DRS’ system for the rear wing can be used in the race only in its designated zones.

Another difference with 2010 is that with the exhaust-blown diffusers now producing much of the rear downforce, running more wing at Monza is not as beneficial in terms of the top-speed trade-off.

Williams’ technical director Sam Michael, however, is not sure.

“On Friday we will test a Monza wing against a Spa wing,” he revealed. “My gut feeling is that more downforce may be the better solution.”

Red Bull’s already-dominant RB6 will feature an F-duct concept for the first time this year during Friday practice in Turkey.

Back-to-back race winner Mark Webber confirmed the news during Thursday’s FIA press conference at Istanbul Park.

Team boss Christian Horner had already announced recently that the team would begin experimenting with the concept in Turkey.

“We are doing the research and for sure at the next couple of races we will have a look at it, but we will only introduce it when it earns a place on the car,” he said after Monaco.

Also using similar rear downforce-stalling solutions in Turkey will be pioneers McLaren, as well as Force India, Ferrari, Sauber, Williams and Mercedes.

(GMM)

Force India has become the latest team to incorporate a F-duct style concept in its 2010 formula one car.

After McLaren pioneered the rear downforce-stalling innovation this year, teams including Ferrari, Mercedes, Williams and Sauber have followed suit.

The already-dominant Red Bull is also expected to debut an F-duct this weekend in Turkey, as will Force India.

The Silverstone based team said on Thursday that the version for the VJM03 car is called a switchable rear wing or SRW.

“Should be a good improvement,” Force India said on its official Twitter.

Vitantonio Liuzzi told reporters at Istanbul Park that he and teammate Adrian Sutil will activate the flow of air through the engine cover and rear wing slot by covering a hole in the cockpit with their wrist.

“The target is to get into Q3 and then score points,” he said earlier this week.

“We deserved to have a double points finish earlier than Monaco, but for some reasons it didn’t happen, so we need to continue to put both cars the top 10 if we want to catch Renault.”

Ferrari, on the other hand, has modified its initial Barcelona-spec F-duct for Turkey so that the drivers block the inlet with their knee rather than their hand.

It is believed Felipe Massa is particularly happy with the change, given that in Spain he had to move his hand further than Fernando Alonso to block the inlet due to the position of his steering wheel.