Post by German Sedano Szaharcsuk

The Aerodynamics of the Ferrari "Flipping Wing" 🏎️📐 Following up on my F1 rear wing design, I want to dive into the core theory I am researching: the mechanics of the Ferrari flipping wing and how an inverted flap can actually cancel out mainplane drag. When the rear wing flap is flipped upside down (x-mode), a fascinating aerodynamic phenomenon occurs: 1️⃣ The Upwash Effect: The Wortmann mainplane generates heavy downforce, physically pushing the air upwards. By the time the air leaves the trailing edge, the local freestream is no longer horizontal, it is angled steeply upward. 2️⃣ The Inverted Flap: Because the Eppler E423 flap is upside down, its aggressively cambered suction surface is now on top, trying to generate standard airplane lift (an upward force). 3️⃣ The Vector Tilt: Aerodynamic lift is generated perpendicular to the local freestream. Because the freestream hitting the flap is already angled upward by the mainplane, the flap’s lift vector is physically tilted forward. When you resolve this tilted lift vector into horizontal and vertical components, the math gets interesting. Because the Eppler E423 generates such massive lift, the horizontal lift component out-scales the profile drag of the flap itself. The net result? A localized forward force vector. The flap is quite literally trying to fly forward, pulling the back of the car along with it and canceling out a massive portion of the mainplane's drag. In Part 3, I’ll outline my roadmap for proving this theory in CFD. Let me know your thoughts on this mechanism in the comments! 👇 #FluidDynamics #F1 #Aerospace #EngineeringStudent #Motorsport #Aerodynamics #Physics