F1 Tech: Downforce

If you watch Formula 1, you have probably heard the commentators and pundits refer to downforce on many occasions. The chances are that if you watch F1 regularly, you’ll know what downforce is, but just in case you don’t, or if you only pay cursory attention to the sport and want to know more, here is my little explanation. However, somewhat paradoxically, let’s start not with the road, but with the sky.

Thrust

Airflow is a huge component of air travel. Modern jets – from the big passenger planes to fighter craft – are designed around the concept of lift. They seek to use the flow of air around their bodies and wings to help raise the plane, and keep it in the air. This philosophy has been the case for decades, and the designers of jets – particularly military planes – are always looking for ways to make this process more efficient. You may be wondering why this is relevant to Formula 1, but bear with me…

The Control of Air

Formula 1 cars didn’t start out as aerodynamic marvels. The earliest cars were sculpted efforts, but they lacked the various wings and artefacts that generate truly impressive downforce. As designers came to understand the idea, they developed the devices that would control the flow of air around a car’s bodywork, applying a downward force to keep the car glued to the track as much as possible. This allowed for faster cornering, and tighter control. With improvements to car design, and within a framework of ever-changing regulations, Formula 1 cars began to sport impressive front and rear wings, and the shape of the cars evolved as well.

Top to bottom: Ferrari 312T4 (1979), Lotus 79 (1978), McLaren MP4/11 (1996). By Rdikeman at the English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1938664

Everything Counts

To start with, F1 supremoes worked with the wings, but it wasn’t long before other ideas entered into the equation. The shape of the bodywork, the position of the sidepods, the brake ducts and even the exhaust gases all became a component of downforce. In 1978, the idea of using the car’s floor to aid in downforce was first used, and it was banned in 1982, following concerns that, combined with powerful turbo engines, F1 cars were taking corners at frightening speeds. From then on, various ideas and rule changes influenced the shape of the cars, the height of the wings, and the shape of the wings. Teams would add various flaps and gadgets to the cars, in the hope of exploiting air flow as much as possible, and the regulators would tweak the rules, meaning teams would then tweak their approach.

Sometimes, a team will develop something that manages to change the balance of power. The Brabham BT46 was a car used in the 1978 season, and it used a fan to generate downforce. This car only raced once before it was banned (competitors did not like it!), but it also won that one singular race it took part in. In modern times, cars designed by Adrian Newey have tended to have the best aerodynamic properties. Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve won the 96 and 97 titles in Williams cars he had designed, and Mika Häkkinen won back-to-back titles in 98 and 99 in McLarens he designed. His Red Bull cars of 2010-2013 were masterpieces of downforce design, and powered Sebastian Vettel to four consecutive world championships, whilst more recently, his ground effect downforce cars of 2022 and onward have seen Max Verstappen dominate the scene.

These results highlight the importance of downforce. Whilst there are other factors that can make or break a season or a team, nailing a car’s overall design gives it a clear advantage.

The Return of Ground Effect

The RB18. By Lukas Raich – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=120367933

As alluded to, ground effect downforce returned to Formula 1 in 2022. This was in conjunction with rules that massively simplified the front wings and bodywork of the cars, and all of this was to aid in closer, more exciting racing action. You see, the increasingly sophisticated aerodynamics of a modern F1 car had created a problem of dirty air. To understand this better, we need to return to the skies.

Planes leave a turbulent wake of distorted air behind them. This can create problems for another plane if it gets caught in this wake. Whilst this problem is not as potentially dangerous for F1 cars, it is nonetheless a factor that affects a car’s handling. Trailing off the back of a Formula 1 car is a distortion of air, referred to as dirty air, and this impacts a following car. F1 cars rely on clear air to maximise their downforce; they cannot draw in the hot, tangled mess of air anywhere near as easily. With the car’s performance dampened by trying to closely follow another car, especially through corners, the car has to work its tyres harder, affecting their useful working life. Consequently, on-track action is not as much of a spectacle as it could be. To combat this, F1 bosses introduced new rules for 2022, with the idea that ground effect cars would both not leave as serious a wake behind them, and that they would not be as reliant on the wings and bodywork to generate downforce.

The idea seems to have worked, though not at the front of the field, where Red Bull have been largely in control for the past few years. Generally speaking, F1 cars are now able to race closer, though the powers-that-be are always looking for ways to improve the on-track entertainment. There are plans for further changes to car design in 2026, including an active aerodynamic system to aid overtaking. How this all pans out is anyone’s guess!

In short, F1 teams will never stop looking for how to make the most of downforce, and the rules will never stop changing to affect how teams do that. It’s a cycle, and whoever interprets the rules the best is usually the team that will dominate any given period of the sport. There’s more to it than downforce, but it’s arguably the single most crucial element of a good car.

Back to Musings on Formula 1

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *