Ground effect trap: Cardile (Ferrari) explains why it's easy to make mistakes

A 'trap' that also hit Red Bull

Behind Red Bull i power relations Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin changed repeatedly throughout the season, a reshuffling that went beyond the updates brought or the characteristics of the circuit in which the Circus was engaged.

Even Red Bull, to be fair, had some empty passages 'sensational' in her two years as a dominator. Singapore 2023 was the most sensational one (Adrian Newey even used the definition of 'fool') but also in Austria in 2022 Max Verstappen's RB18 ate up the tires against Charles Leclerc's Ferrari.

This is because every small change that is made in search of greater performance can have enormous repercussions on the balance of the car, because the 'sounding board' of a change in the settings is decidedly amplified compared to the previous generation of cars due to the new 'physical' functioning of the ground effect single-seaters.

The technical director of Ferrari explained it Enrico Cardilewho explained the variables that come into play at the design and development level when we continue to search for greater performance: “There are three particularities that characterize this generation of cars – the words of Cardile interviewed by the German newspaper Auto Motor und Sport – the first is porpoising, which didn't trigger before. Aerodynamic bounce limits the design, because you have to prevent the car from starting to wobble on straights or in curves. Secondly, the rules are much more restrictive than in the past. The freedom to develop the car and react to problems has decreased. Thirdly, the underbody reacts much more sensitively to the smallest changes. Even if you change a small thing in one place, it will affect a large area of ​​the bottom in another place. This is because the underbody is no longer flat, but three-dimensional. Once the car is optimized for a particular solution, moving away from that configuration can cause many inconveniences. But since you are constantly looking for lap times, you have to keep looking for new solutions.”