’09 bodywork to promote overtaking

(GMM) Detailed computer simulations of next year's sweeping aerodynamic bodywork changes predict that the new rules will lead to more overtaking.

After November's season ending Brazilian grand prix, the formula one cars of 2009 will look considerably different; smaller wings and no winglets or bodywork appendages.

Also to be altered radically is the rear diffuser, which can take a lot of the blame for processional races like last Sunday's European grand prix at Valencia.

"The Toyota is particularly bad," Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel told the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport.

"You cannot get closer than about one second behind," the German explained.

Auto Motor und Sport said McLaren test drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett, at the wheel of the state of the art facility at Woking, were "thrilled" with the exploration of simulated overtaking possibilities for 2009.