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Newey explains: 'That's why these F1 cars are so hard to improve'
- Ludo van Denderen
If there is anything the past few years have shown, it's that it is increasingly difficult to get the right direction with the development of an F1 car. Red Bull Racing thought it was improving its RB20 last season, but with updates it actually got worse.
Increasingly, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were experiencing balance problems and even the bouncing of the car. That took some getting used to, after 2023 in which the RB20's predecessor, the RB19, seemed to be right on track. According to Adrian Newey, who parted ways with Red Bull Racing in spring 2024, there is little more to be gained in terms of performance in the current generation of cars.
F1's ground effect trade between downforce and consistency, a 'difficult problem'
The Briton argues that ground-effect cars are anything but predictable. Even the smallest adjustment can make a huge difference - for better or worse. "A ground effect car which doesn't have sealed skirts, like the old sliding skirt cars, is always going to be very susceptible to aerodynamic instabilities because you now start to generate these very low pressures under the floor," Newey explains the problem to Auto, Motor und Sport.
The designer then says: "But you have all this leakage coming in from the side and that creates potentially some quite strong losses and problems as you get closer and closer to the ground. But equally, they're a good way of creating downforce. So you're always trying to trade downforce versus consistency. It's a difficult problem," Newey concludes.
This article was written in collaboration with Norberto Mujica.
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