F1-Blog

It’s emerged that some of the teams were using a new movable part in the Australian race. McLaren have protested to the FIA stating that they believe that BMW and Ferrari had moving floors.

Article 3.17.4 states that the floor must only move 5mm when subjected to 500 Newton’s of load. It seems that the two teams in question were using devices that allowed their floors to pass this test, but under extreme loads in racing (i.e. the fast straights).

You may ask what benefits this gives the teams? Well in the fast straights the floor deflects, this then creates a ’stall’ of the air beneath the car, this lowers the suction that the flat floor creates, lowering the suction, lowers the downforce, allowing the car to be quicker.

The FIA have issued a change that states

We have no objection to a device in this area which is fitted to prevent the bodywork from moving downwards, provided it is clear that it is not designed to circumvent the test described in Article 3.17.4. Therefore, with immediate effect, we will be testing bodywork in the relevant area with any such devices removed

This new test will obviously stop the teams mentioned from being able to bypass the test and use the floor to their advantage. How big that advantage is, we cannot gauge until the next race, but if the Ferrari looses some of it’s advantage over the McLaren then we can say it is probably because of the floor.