F1 News: Mercedes Director Blasts Ground Effect Cars - "Not Like It Was"

James Allison explains why it's not good to have cars with a rear-ride height of around 60mm.

Mercedes Technical Director James Allison explained why he doesn't particularly like the ground effect cars that were introduced in 2022, primarily due to the narrow 60mm bandwidth team engineers receive to fine-tune their car's rear ride height, especially on circuits that throw a mixed bag of challenges like the Circuit of The Americas in Austin.

In 2022, the ground effect era commenced in Formula 1, necessitating teams to significantly lower their cars to the ground to generate maximum downforce. However, the introduction of a stiff suspension setup added further complexity and challenges to the equation.

Allison explained that the current F1 cars are not like how they were a few years ago. He added that 2023 world champion Max Verstappen may have enjoyed the success he got through his RB19 but, he might not have found the driving experience particularly enjoyable. Speaking to the media, he said:

“I'm sure I bang on about this because it's been a bug-bear of mine, but I personally don't think it's a great thing. I don't think it's good having the cars operating, when they leave the garage, with that much space to the ground [signalling a few millimetres with his fingers].

“You get the person who's winning the championship by one of the biggest margins ever, and has every reason to love his car to bits, and I doubt he'll tell you it's a lovely thing. It is not like it was a couple of years ago.”

Explaining the primary difference between the old F1 cars and the modern ground-effect F1 cars, Allison added:

“You guys [the media] used to carry on endlessly about high-rake, low-rake cars as if that was the beginning, end, and middle of everything. 

“A high-rake car was around 140mm [rear ride height]. A low-rake car would be like 120mm or whatever. Well, both of them are stratospheric ranges compared with these cars.

“These are all cars that are setting off in the 60mms. There might be a few millimetres of difference between them, but they're all just on the ground.” 

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Going into greater detail, the technical director explains how difficult it is to get a car that is so low to the ground to perform perfectly on a diverse track like the Circuit of The Americas. He said:

“Well, you could have a car that was a little bit more one-dimensional at tracks that are a bit more one-dimensional. So if there isn't a big speed range, then you could maybe set your car up such that the corners coincide with where your good bit is, and you don't suffer horribly for it dropping away either side. 

“But when you go to a place that's a bit more of a broad test of a car, like Austin for example, where you've got real fast stuff, some slow stuff, and some in-between stuff, and some decent straights, and some bumps, then that's going to test the bit where it's falling off the back end of the performance. It's going to test the end of straight [downforce] failure, it's going to need to stay strong in the fast [corners].

“And it's hard to persuade the car to do all of those things with a set of rules that basically don't want to do anything except be near the ground.”