The floor tweaks aimed to slow down F1 cars in 2021
With Formula 1 keeping the current generation of cars through 2021 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic impact, there had been concerns that car development could start to cause some headaches.
2020-2021 floor comparison
Motorsport.com
In particular, the chief worry was that ever-increasing amounts of downforce could push tyres over the limit they were originally designed for – with the rubber spec set to have its third year of running next season.
So in a bid to ensure F1 is not left in a situation where Pirelli’s only option to manage the tyres is to force teams to use ever higher pressures – something they don’t like – it has been agreed to make some changes to the floor area of the car to bring downforce levels down.
The change in wording to article 3.7.2 of F1’s technical regulations means that the edge of the floor will no longer be equidistant from the car’s centre line all the way from the front to the back. This creates a sort of boat tail effect instead.
Furthermore, alterations to the dimensions mentioned in article 3.7.10 mean the designers will no longer have the freedom to incorporate fully enclosed holes on the floor’s edge, or ahead of the rear tyre, as they have since 2017.
In the case of the holes created on the edge of the floor, their rampant use has yielded a significant increase in downforce, as they have helped the aerodynamicists ‘seal’ the flow of airflow under the car from the turbulence created by the front tyres.
Meanwhile, the holes used ahead of the rear tyre have helped to mitigate the effects of ‘tyre squirt’ - a phenomenon caused by the deformation of the rear tyre that reduces diffuser performance as jets of air are pushed laterally into its path.
What will likely happen as a reaction is that designers will revert to using slot designs, as long as they work in conjunction with the new floor shape.
This practice, whereby a small slit is used to perforate the edge of the floor and turn what is ostensibly a hole into a slot, only really fell out of favour because they were slightly less effective than a hole.
In order to stop the teams from making gains from aero elasticity, the goalposts have also been moved when it comes to flex tests performed on this area of the car too.
Article 3.9.2 allows 2mm less vertical deflection, whilst the point at which it is measured from the centre plane has also been shifted 50mm.
In the grand scheme of things, the changes are unlikely to have a massive performance impact, as continuous development of a known concept would have likely have resulted in a gain that will now have to be recovered.
However, it’s unlikely that the new more restrictive tolerances will allow them to make rapid gains in the short term.
Here’s a gallery of some of the solutions used by teams in recent years in respect of both the holes parallel to the edge of the floor and the ones just ahead of the rear tyre.
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