Front Wing - Red Bull RB6 3D print model

Front Wing of the RB& from Red Bull Formula 1. Made in CATIA V5 and rendered in Keyshot 10.

The front wing on a Formula 1 car is one of the most important elements that make up the aerodynamics of the car. It is the first aerodynamic part that comes into contact with the undisturbed air flow, and for this reason it is responsible for how the air flow will interact with the rest of the car.

Therefore even if you have the most efficient bargeboards, diffuser and rear wing, it’s all useless without an efficient front wing that is channeling the airflow exactly where it’s needed, and not only that, but conditioning it so it arrives in a useable manner.

The front wing of a modern F1 car is made up of various elements, some of which are subject to intense development throughout the course of a season.

Technicians and designers are able to achieve exceptional aerodynamic efficiency values, thanks to the use of fluid dynamic simulators such as CFD (computational fluid dynamics) and the processing of wind tunnel data.

A common mistake is thinking that the front wing’s sole focus is creating downforce for the front wheel axle, but above all that is preparing the airflows that will then hit the rest of the car and in the correct way.

However, the front wing is one of the elements of an F1 car that is most subject to regulatory constraints, which determine its dimensions in width and height, even regulating its maximum flexion. The front wing, in fact, is one of the most similar parts among the different cars, precisely because of how tight the regulations are that govern its design, offering little in the way of freedom.

We don’t tend to see anything radical in terms of development of the front wing, not because they don’t want to, but because they are banned by the regulations.

To facilitate overtaking and make them less sensitive to turbulence, the FIA radically simplified the design of the front wings starting from 2019, abolishing all additional cantilever aerodynamic profiles, better known as upper flaps.