Photo: Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool
One of the selling points for ground effect cars in 2022 was the ability to follow more closely to the car ahead when racing, and while the results were a bit inconclusive after initial testing in Barcelona this year, now teams have had more time to experiment on the track ahead of the season opener in Bahrain this upcoming weekend.
The verdict, at least according to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, is in, and things are looking quite promising. The reigning Formula 1 world champion believes that teams have made a decent step forward, reports Motorsport, having already noticed that his car no longer became unbalanced when in the wake of another car.
“I do think it is better,” said the Red Bull driver. “It’s at least better than last year, when if you got behind someone, you suddenly got understeer or a lot of oversteer. It was uncontrollable.”
He then went on to add: “When I’m behind a car now, I do notice that I’m losing downforce, but that happens front and rear. So that makes it more predictable and controllable for drivers.”
It’s also important to note that with these new car designs comes an increase in weight and therefore, cars are now less agile in slow-speed corners. Still, Verstappen doesn’t see this as a problem.
“It also depends on the balance of the car of course,” he explained. “If you had a lot of understeer or oversteer last year, it was difficult to drive that car as well. Driving any car on the limit is difficult, I think it’s pretty much the same.”
That being said, Verstappen admits that 2022 cars will probably be less fun to drive on tracks with a lot of slow corners. However, the opposite should be true whenever racing is done on really fast circuits like Monza or Silverstone.
“I do think it is better,” said the Red Bull driver. “It’s at least better than last year, when if you got behind someone, you suddenly got understeer or a lot of oversteer. It was uncontrollable.”
He then went on to add: “When I’m behind a car now, I do notice that I’m losing downforce, but that happens front and rear. So that makes it more predictable and controllable for drivers.”
It’s also important to note that with these new car designs comes an increase in weight and therefore, cars are now less agile in slow-speed corners. Still, Verstappen doesn’t see this as a problem.
“It also depends on the balance of the car of course,” he explained. “If you had a lot of understeer or oversteer last year, it was difficult to drive that car as well. Driving any car on the limit is difficult, I think it’s pretty much the same.”
That being said, Verstappen admits that 2022 cars will probably be less fun to drive on tracks with a lot of slow corners. However, the opposite should be true whenever racing is done on really fast circuits like Monza or Silverstone.
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