Tech chiefs to present CDG alternative

Formula One technical directors are to present a new "overtaking-friendly" wing package as an alternative to the Centreline Downwash Generating rear wing proposed by the FIA last year, this week's Autosport magazine reports

A meeting between teams and the FIA set to he held next week aims at finalising the technical regulations for the 2008 season, and Williams engineering chief Patrick Head has confirmed the teams' investigations into how to increase overtaking had resulted in a package considerably different from what the governing body has proposed.

The CDG wing, unveiled by the FIA in October last year, prompted a lot of engineering debate, with teams unsure it would prove as effective as expected.

"The FIA tried to come up with a solution to the problem of not enough overtaking, but the teams are unhappy that the basis for their study is primarily CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics)," Head told Autosport.

"If CFD was at a level that it could support car design exclusively, then the teams would not have wind tunnels."

CFD uses computers to analyze problems in fluid dynamics, complementing wind tunnel work.

Renault chief of engineering Pat Symonds confirmed that the teams' alternative, which features new front and rear wings, as well as a new underfloor treatment, would look very different from current cars.

"Visually it will be a completely different-looking car," Symonds said. "It will be updated completely and will be a car that strives to perform slightly better than CDG in terms of overtaking and probably does not look quite so radical.

"The sort of car where after a few races you've forgotten they used to look any different."