Here is the wing in 'normal' position...
...and here it is apparently in 'deployed' mode
The official pictures of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari F150 shakedown at Fiorano yesterday gave us a chance to see the movable rear wing flap in action.
The wing is clearly going to be a major feature of upcoming testing for all the teams as teams test reliability and the drivers experiment with how to use it in practice and qualifying trim – where they are free to deploy whenever they want – and in race trim, when they can use it while running behind another car, but only when the FIA permits.
Teams still have a lot to learn about the wings. One technical director told me this week that while the wing ‘springs back’ into place automatically when a driver brakes at the end of the straight – with his car at least – that process might not happen fast enough to get the downforce back in time to get round the corner safely (we’re talking about just a tenth here). Thus the driver may have to press the button himself just before he brakes. Another thing to remember!
At some stage in testing drivers will probably want to find themselves in a traffic situation so that they can try it out. Indeed ‘friendly’ teams such as Red Bull and STR or McLaren and Force India could actually co-ordinate such a test. Not so sure that the two Lotus teams will co-operate though…
Adam Cooper F1 
Adam,
I can’t help but think what an utterly contrived addition to F1 this moveable wing is. It’s all so artificial. The drivers will be pressing more buttons than a PlayStation junkie.
SB
I hate the idea of the movable wings. Hopefully it will be shown up to be the hopeless idea it is, and binned for 2012. I’m not betting the house on it, though. After all, we’ve still got no refuelling. I’d be better disposed towards it if the drivers were free to use it whenever they liked, but that would probably be an amazingly bad idea.
I love the idea of movable wings. I also love how people have judged it before it’s even been used in battle. I also don’t have a problem with making the drivers life more difficult. This is competition, it’s sport, a game, it’s a test of the talents of the drivers, and the brains of the engineers. It increases the range of fallibility and the scope of required ability.
I’m not convinced about the second gap rule, but I’ll be pleased to see Alonso overtake Massa on merit. I’ll also be pleased to see how the focused talents of Kubica and Kobayashi, along with Hamilton use these rules to their advantage.
Some drivers will stand out if they can understand, and master the tools at their disposal, when others complain, whinge, and ultimately make mistakes.