Ground effect (cars)

The international Formula One series and American racing IndyCars employ ground effects in their engineering and designs.

In racing cars, a designer's aim is for increased downforce and grip to achieve higher cornering speeds.

Designers shifted their efforts at understanding air flow around the perimeter, body skirts, and undersides of the vehicle to increase downforce with less drag than compared to using a wing.

American Jim Hall developed and built his Chaparral cars around the principles of ground effects, pioneering them.

During its stay in England, the car was taken to the Catesby tunnel, where a complete aerodynamic analysis was carried out by the argentine engineer and professor Sergio Rinland.

When Heriberto tested it at the National University of Córdoba, he verified its air resistance with a 1/5 scale model that was perfect, without door and hood openings, without the intake turrets..." Rinland said.

Almost, almost what Heriberto had measured at the time”[4] “It has a slippery upper shape and a flat floor with a diffuser that gave it quite an edge in its day.

These tests were carried out with and without the "long tail" which was used for high-speed circuits, with the vehicle propelled by its own means, at working temperature, returning consistent and repeatable results.

In 1968 and 1969, Tony Rudd and Peter Wright at British Racing Motors (BRM) experimented on track and in the wind tunnel with long aerodynamic section side panniers to clean up the turbulent airflow between the front and rear wheels.

[1] At about the same time, Shawn Buckley began his work in 1969 at the University of California, Berkeley on undercar aerodynamics sponsored by Colin Chapman, founder of Formula One Lotus.

He investigated how flow separation on the undersurface channel could be influenced by boundary layer suction and divergence parameters of the underbody surface.

Its sidepods, bulky constructions between front and rear wheels, were shaped as inverted aerofoils and sealed with flexible "skirts" to the ground.

[12] Brabham's owner, Bernie Ecclestone, who had recently become president of the Formula One Constructors Association, reached an agreement with other teams to withdraw the car after three races.

However the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), governing body of Formula One and many other motorsport series, decided to ban 'fan cars' with almost immediate effect.

[13] The Lotus 79, on the other hand, went on to win six races and the world championship for Mario Andretti and gave teammate Ronnie Peterson a posthumous second place, demonstrating just how much of an advantage the cars had.

[citation needed] This led to a generation of cars that were designed as much by hunch as by any great knowledge of the finer details, making them extremely pitch-sensitive.

At the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton struggled to get out of the car after the race due to violent porpoising.