The phenomenon of boiling, twisting vortices being generated by winged F1 machines has been an issue through the generations.
But in the championship’s moves to improve its entertainment spectacle, particularly over the last 20 years or so, the desire to clean-up outwash airflow generated by cars to allow following drivers to stay close behind a rival and not slide in the unstable air buffeting their own machines has regularly been cited.
The move to ground-effect rules for the current era, with airflow sent higher and wider by such designs plus the desired slashed reduction of the outwash effect through simplified front wings, had a clear target of eliminating as much dirty air as possible as the cars traversed corners to improve racing.
The initial feedback from the drivers was generally positive on this factor, with the feeling the airflow from following another new ground-effect car reduced the unpredictable handling snaps that meant a chasing driver struggled to make ground.
In broad strokes terms, it was felt that rather than losing 50% of their downforce in such snaps when running one car length back from a rival, this was reduced to losing approximately 20% in 2022 before team aerodynamic developments – particularly around the front wing endplates and brake ducts – meant the downforce ‘loss’ rose back to around 35% in 2023.
But after the 2024 season opener in Bahrain, the start of the third year of development for the current car generation, the topic of dirty air and drivers perhaps struggling to follow as they had done in the last two years surfaced once again.
