P1racenews AI automatic summary:
Mercedes Technical Director James Allison believes Formula 1’s return to ground effect machinery is “not great” due to the super-stiff
The 2022 overhaul of F1’s technical regulations reintroduced ground effect, which allows the car’s shaped underside to generate up to 60% of total downforce. However, to maximize the ground effect, teams must run stiff suspension geometries and lower ride heights, resulting in limited setup options. This has received complaints as the narrower operating windows restrict the engineers from extracting more performance. Current regulations have made cars operate with very little space to the ground, and this is not liked by James Allison, Max Verstappen, and Red Bull, despite their recent domination in the sport. Allison believes that the regulations are not a great thing and that cars don’t feel the same as they did a few years ago.
