F1, a ‘background’ question

Aston Martin comes to this GP of the Netherlands with a lot of optimism and hope to change the course of the last races and come back to fight again for the podiums because of the important aerodynamic innovations it has. In this case, there are no sidepods or spoilers. His package of improvements focused on one point: the land. That explains the importance attached to it. Aston Martin in its novelty, and it is already in the current F1 cars, due to changes in the regulation for new era of F1 from 2022, the element that is most important and contributes the greatest aerodynamic load to the car is the ground or bottom of the car. All this, because the current technical regulations for single-seaters are based on the return of the so-called ‘ground effect’.

This concept is based on Bernoulli’s principle, which explains that when a liquid entering at a constant speed passes through a funnel, it will exit at a higher speed at the thinner end than at the wider one. that end. That, transferred to F1, has a very clear explanation and enormous importance. In current F1 cars, air enters from the front, is captured by flaps in a wider area, and the teams direct it under the floor of the car until it exits in a narrower area. The air intake is directed upwards and this allows the car to grip the ground more firmly due to the reduction of pressure on the lower part of the car. The car sticks to the ground and this allows the car to increase speed in the corner because it has more grip. The car is sucked into the asphalt and its speed is higher in the curve.

Surprisingly, the most important part of the car is hidden because it is attached to the ground. This is the biggest secret of the F1 teams, although, however, secrets cannot always be kept safe. Let them say red bull. His secret was discovered in Monaco due to a car accident. ‘Czech’ Perez. Cranes lifted the vehicle to remove it from the streets of the Principality and it didn’t take long for photographers to hunt down the photo everyone was looking for. And the same thing happened to Hungary on the new floor of energy drinks, also after the Mexican accident. On both occasions, Red Bull’s rivals put their hand up in public. They see and understand the philosophy of the most important part of a champion car.

But Red Bull didn’t worry about being copied. And it’s not just about copying the shape of a floor, but about creating this floor in conjunction with the car’s entire aerodynamic package. A car line drawn differently might end in ‘puzzle‘ aerodynamic that has to work perfectly on the car. It all depends on the direction of the wind, below, and above the vehicle. In being as fast as possible in the curve, but at the same time, in offering the least possible resistance in the straight so that your maximum speed is the highest. And Red Bull is the best of the whole bunch.

In search of lands in Zandvoort

Due to the importance of the ground, on Friday morning, when the teams were forced by the FIA ​​to present their cars with innovations implemented in their single-seaters, the MD tried to hunt down part of the secrets of the team with pictures of the ground from the back of the vehicle. This newspaper saw and captured part of McLaren’s background, which it introduced in Austria and helped those from Woking take a big step forward to fight for the podiums. Later, in FP2, Piastri had an accident and the ‘puzzle’ ended when all these elements were exposed when a crane lifted the car.

In the same way, MD has also acquired part of the land of Mercedes, introduced to Silverstoneand that served those Brackley which took another big step forward to fight the drawers. In all of them, similar shapes can be seen in the lower back, in search of the same effect. And in the new Aston Martin there are sensor grids that they will need to collect important data to understand its exact operation when the car is out on the track.

McLaren and Mercedes funds:

Christian Horner, boss of Red Bullrecently said that he does not believe that red bull I will dominate F1 for many years. That convergence of cars is achieved by maintaining the same regulations over the years. The technical regulations will be maintained in the coming courses and all the cars should come closer as some look at each other and understand what works and what doesn’t, applying more and more similar concepts in all its parts. The big change is the 2026 engines, another key element in the performance of a single-seater and can make a difference. For others, most of the cake is on the floor. F1… something of substance.