F1 Williams abandons skate fins

By Jonathan Noble
Monday, March 16th 2009, 16:58 GMT
Williams has abandoned plans to race the cockpit 'skate fins' that appeared on its FW31 in recent testing following safety concerns about their design, autosport.com can reveal.
The team introduced the radical sail fins at the end of last month as a way of helping channel airflow over the rear of the car.
Although bodywork winglets and flip-ups were theoretically banned with the introduction of the 2009 technical regulations, the team was able to use these fins because of a loophole in the rules regarding the head restraint area of the car.
But following discussions between the team and FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting during last week's F1 test at Barcelona in Spain about the safety implications of the design, the team has opted against pursuing the concept any further.
It is understood that there was some concern from the FIA that the fins could impede marshals from assisting a driver in the event of an accident.
Although Williams could have opted to keep the fins on its cars for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix to seek a definitive ruling from race stewards about their legality, the team has confirmed that it does not plan to race them.
The team had already removed them by the final day of last week's Barcelona test, and it is running without them in this week's run at Jerez in Spain.
Williams technical director Sam Michael said at a media event last month that the team was open about its plans to race them in 2009.
"They are likely to remain, but like any part there could be a development on the car than changes the nature of the car, so they could change shape or we could remove them completely," he said.
Williams is not the only team which will be removing cockpit fins before the start of the season.
It is understood that BMW Sauber will also get rid of the small cockpit fins that have appeared on its car in testing.