Explainer | It’s the most seismic shift to F1’s rule book since the ’80s. What’s different – and which drivers will benefit most?
It was the final lap of the final race of the season when Dutch driver Max Verstappen flashed across the finish line of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last December to snatch his first Formula One world championship from the sport’s kingpin, the Brit Lewis Hamilton. That last lap was the only one Verstappen had led for the entire race.
But all of that performance, impressive as it was, came at a cost. Turbulent air was spat out behind the car, billowing straight into the path of a trailing rival. This made it problematic for the car behind to closely follow to even set up an overtaking advance, let alone pass. Races – particularly at narrow street circuits such as Albert Park – could become processional, akin to a high-speed game of follow the leader. For the spectacle, something had to change.
Ground effect is nothing new; if you look at an image of an F1 machine from the early 1980s you’ll see the cars were almost sealed from front to rear wheels with low-to-the-ground “skirts” that trapped the under-pressure airflow beneath the car. But these cars were banned after the 1982 season. Increasing cornering speeds in mechanically brittle cars and circuits that were patently unsafe saw two drivers die and several others injured in terrifying accidents.
“It’s not going to be too easy to pass, and it shouldn’t be – a pass should be something you have to earn, not just something that happens,” he says. “But trailing the car in front, you feel like your own car is less disrupted, there’s less unstable air affecting your car and how it performs. I was pretty sceptical about it until I got into the car for the first time in Barcelona and got a taste of it.
The teams must share their computer data on car developments with the sport’s governing body, the FIA , at every race weekend for their cars to be passed as legal. Scrutineers use laser scans to check that the physical car presented by each team correlates with the data provided. The drivers are as intrigued as the scrutineers by the variety of designs.
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