Many people have said this year that upgrading cars is risky. It is difficult to predict how a ground effect car will react to changes in the aerodynamic body kit, especially in the underbody. Some have been allowed to add new items, others have been thrown back, others are avoiding major updates and moving forward step by step.
Max Verstappen looks forward to the final part of the season with cautious optimism…
Max Verstappen: “At one point we went in the wrong direction. After that, at each subsequent race the car behaved worse and worse, at some point it became difficult to control and our rivals made real progress, which affected the balance of power.
Working with ground effect turned out to be more difficult than anyone expected. Even the privileged McLaren is holding on to the new underbody because there are no guarantees. Cars are much more sensitive to updates this season than before. This can also be seen at other teams besides McLaren. Everyone had their problems, including those with modern wind tunnels. It is impossible to take all factors into account.
Things get more complicated when there isn’t a 100% correlation between measurements in the wind tunnel and the car’s performance on a real track. The result is that the extra downforce found in the computer and embodied in new products does not necessarily make the car faster on the track.
We are now coming out of this crisis. The car goes faster, the driving sensations have become better. We are preparing new products for Austin and I hope the worst of this season is behind us.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
