Whiting defends driver enabled rear wings

Over the extended build up to the start of the 2011 Formula One season, the new regulations for driver enabled rear wings have been discussed in detail on this site.

The idea behind it, the mechanics behind it and whether it will be affective have all been discussed.

The pro's of hopefully having more exciting races and more chances for overtaking manoeuvres have been covered, along with the con's of its introduction being little bit gimmicky and of course the chance that controversial regulations will have too much of an affect on the racing.

The latter has now been discussed by Formula One Race director Charlie Whiting who has stated that the new regulations will have no bearing on race results.

The driver enabled rear-wing has been introduced in the hope of aiding overtaking, so that the system is only used for this purpose, regulations have been put in place so that the system can only be activated in certain areas of the track and only when a driver is within one second of the car in front.

When a driver can use the rear-wing an automatic signal is sent to the car and a light will appear on the drivers steering wheel, indicating that the system can be used.

These regulations have led to fears over technical problems within the system having an influence over a race result.

'Race control has no influence over the outcome of a race. The system will be armed automatically, Cars will simply have to get within one second of the one in front, the system will be armed automatically and the driver can use it at the predetermined point, There is no question of race control being able to intervene.' Whiting told the BBC.

If the system does suffer a malfunction drivers will still be able to activate the rear-wing, but they will have to ask permission from race control. Unauthorised use will result in heavy penalties from race control.

Assuming that the official timing screens do not fail, it should be easy enough to work out when a car is within one second and is allowed to use the system or not and teams will know this from the data that they already receive during a race.

Formula One also plans to paint lines on the track to indicate the areas that the system can be used, not only helping the teams and drivers, but also helping the spectators as it had been unclear how us fans watching at home would know what was happening!

Television broadcasters will also receive a signal when a driver uses the system which will be shown on TV with an on screen graphic, which is a fantastic move, especially if the graphics can also indicate when a driver is also using his KERS heading into and out of a breaking zone.

It should be fascinating.