Ferrari’s Technological Innovations Part 6: 1968 - The First Wing in a Formula 1 GP. Competitors Followed.

It took 57 years for someone to understand that an inverted wing, placed high on a race car, would generate downforce that improves tire grip on the ground, ensuring much higher cornering speeds. In 1956, at the Nürburgring circuit in Germany, a Porsche client-driver, an engineer as well as a gentleman driver, showed up at the 1000-kilometer test with his small Porsche 550 equipped with a large wing. Curiosity and irony from other drivers and even Porsche itself soon vanished: Michael May, his name, set the fastest lap with a huge lead over the others. Immediate objections were raised in the name of safety, with Porsche itself getting involved, resulting in the car with the wing being disqualified.

The Porsche 550 Spyder of Michael May at the 1000 Km Nürburgring in 1956 used a device with the profile of an inverted airplane wing to generate downforce.

And that was it. Looking back, it’s surprising that no one considered the fast lap time and the potential of the idea. The wing reappeared five years later in a Ferrari 246 SP test. These were the years in which Maranello had applied spoilers to their winning cars in the sport and GT categories (click here to learn more https://roarington.com/media-house/stories/ferraris-technological-innovations-part-5-1961-discovering-air-as-an-ally), but the results weren’t convincing, so the wing was soon abandoned.

We all know many things happen by chance. In 1963, engineer Michael May collaborated with Ferrari’s technical director to develop direct injection. Ferrari's young and bold technical leader, Mauro Forghieri, seized the opportunity, and it was natural for the two to address the wing topic. In America, around that time, Chaparral had fitted wings on its cars for the CanAm series.

Jim Hall pioneered the development of aerodynamic appendages such as the rear wing, which debuted in 1966 in the CanAm Championship on the Chaparral 2E.

The results were difficult to understand, given the many innovations in that project, but Maranello, informed that Colin Chapman was also experimenting with them on the Lotus—again with no particular advantage—managed to find the right approach. At the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix in Spa, the two Ferrari 312 F1s driven by Chris Amon and Jackie Ickx showed up with fully studied aerodynamic wings. In the race, only Amon used it, finishing second.

At the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix, Ferrari introduced a true rear wing, a solution that all Formula 1 teams would later adopt.

The potential was there, but the loss of speed on straights was a reason for reflection. At Monza, this reflection yielded an answer: Ferrari drivers could manually raise and lower the wing. A sort of current DRS, but more complex to use and potentially dangerous. Efficient but soon banned. However, that curious idea from years earlier had finally been baptized, thanks to Ferrari. Soon, everyone adopted it, often with dangerous solutions. The result was precise regulation that has sustained this brilliant intuition to this day.

In 1969 the aerodynamic experiments continue and the wing on the 312 F1 grows in size.