F1’s move to the current ground-effect rules set in 2022 was prompted by a desire to allow cars to follow much closer to each other.
One of the core features of the regulations was to minimise teams pushing airflow away from the car and tyres – known as outwash – because this wake disturbance contributed to a loss of downforce for pursuing cars.
But as teams have got to grips with the new regulations, there has been an increased push to maximise outwash characteristics, especially through clever design of the front wings.
It is this approach which is understood to have contributed to the 2023 cars being harder to follow than their 2022 counterparts.
Earlier this year, it was estimated that there was a 35% loss of downforce when competitors are two car lengths behind a rivals – up from 20% in 2022.
While originally there had been some thought given to making some rule changes for 2025, the FIA’s single seater director Nikolas Tombazis has now explained that moves to sort out the problem will now likely to wait until the next rules era from 2026.
Source: Autosport