Can a new front wing close the gap for Arrows ?


Testing last week

By Huw Alban
April 29 2002

OrangeArrows have proclaimed the Silverstone test last week to be a success, despite the test car not completing a race distance as promised by Mike Coughlan. In the teams defense they did appear to be trying out some new aero tweaks in time for the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.

During the recent F1 test at Silverstone, an eagle eyed observer spotted that Arrows were using two types of front wing. The difference came to light as the team practiced their pit stops on Wednesday, the first of which was to change the front wing and nose cone. As the team got ready and placed a new wing assembly in the pit lane, our abserver noticed that the one attatched to the car sat in the garage was very much different.

Take a look at the pictures below:

This is the old wing assembly, waiting to be fitted to the A23 during the practice pit stop.

This is the new wing bolted to the car, prior to it going out. Notice the inclusion of extra peices on the end plates and the central portion that appears to be controlled via a centrally mounted restraining wire. There also appears to be some work on the central body barge boards - notice the silver coloured tape there.

Is this part of the teams drive to improve the performance of the A23 ? Did these improvements work, and will they be used at this weekends Spanish Grand Prix ? This site will be glued to the television to see, and those fingers will be crossed that the developments did work.

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