2022 Aerodynamic Regulations Thread

[Hoffman900]

Why have planks at all. Suspensions/springs could be made to reach the limit of their movement range before the car bottoming out, right? Or is that too simple and obvious?

I also suspect the floor could be (mandatorily) shaped to make getting close to the tarmac disadvantageous.

IIRC the plank - and a related ride height increase - was introduced after events in Imola 94. The intention was to reduce cars' ability to utilise ground effect and improve safety related to bottoming out. Removing the plank would be a reversal of that good intention, so not something that would happen lightly even if technically feasible.

It always seemed like a clunky pseudo solution to me. It doesn't actually prevent bottoming out for one.

The point was that it is lower than the then flat floors, so when the car bottomed out, the entire flow didn’t choke and suddenly lose downforce, only the narrow center section bottomed out.

It was always there to provide a minimum of floor bottom to asphalt surface height.

Before that the entire floor was flat and could bottom out, thus reducing that gap to zero, and collapsing all underfloor flow, and suddenly kill downforce.

[vorticism]

Four seasons in, we see the entire field of cars are now derivatives of the RB18, 19, and 20. I don't mean this as a trite insult to the other teams, it's just a statement of fact. Good designs are copied. Same thing happened after the 2009 regs change, where by 2014 all the cars look liked derivatives of the RB5/6/7 line. Honda and Renault implemented split turbo. Everyone copied F-ducts and double diffusers.

In 2025 all teams afaik are using RB20 front sidepods except Alpine who have a combo of RB19 & RB20 front sidepods. All teams are using RB18/19 rear sidepods. Front pullrod now more common than pushrod. All teams as far as I've seen are using RB18 curled floor fences and RB18 floor boat section steps.

This convergence explains the 2024 & 2025 season. RB's primary advantage was, as before, in aero and chassis, but now everyone has their advantage, which leaves suspension, tyre management, strat, team ops, and drivers as differentiators. McLaren are apparently very good at suspension and tyre management (whether by strat or by hardware), and they have two excellent drivers. Williams must also be strong in some of these areas.