Why F1 teams struggle to find the sweet spot with ground effect cars

14:32, 17 Aug

Co-author:Norberto Mujica

byLudo van Denderen

In the current era of ground effect cars in Formula 1, it appears to be particularly difficult to find the so-called 'sweet spot'. Take Red Bull Racing, who've been struggling for months to find the right balance in the car. Mercedes has also had to deal with this.

In Hungary, the last Grand Prix before the summer break, George Russell managed to drive to third place. An absolute stroke of luck for Mercedes, who had been struggling enormously with the car in the weeks before, after having done so well at the front earlier in the season.

Why are the current F1 cars difficult to understand?

One week at the top, the other week not moving forward. The unpredictability of the current generation of F1 cars regularly causes headaches for teams.

"It’s a set of rules and the way the cars run that is difficult to fully capture in simulation," says Bradley Lord, the team representative to a small number of media, including GPblog.

"You're looking to operate the cars within very, very narrow windows of performance so I think the level of sensitivity of the cars to that is potentially reflected in the fact that we have seen I think all the different teams at various points across the last four years what appear to be either sort of development cul-de-sacs or false steps that they then had to back out of as well."

Andrea Kimi Antonelli driving the W16 at Spa

Mercedes also had a difficult period with the W16

'F1 has not reached convergence point yet'

From 2026, new technical regulations will be introduced in Formula 1, which means that everyone starts from scratch. But suppose we continued with the current generation of cars, would the field have eventually become even closer?

"I think every single rule sees convergence over time," says Lord. "This one we've seen different teams actually with significant advantages in different seasons so we're not yet at that convergence point."

"On the front we have seen that trend in general over the four years but we still have got dominant teams within this rule set so the longer they stay stable the more convergence takes place that's the sort of historical fact and trend I think in F1."