F1 News: McLaren Chief Outlines Limitations With Current Ground Effect Cars

The new ground-effects regulation is a bit of a disadvantage for low drag tracks like Monza.

In 2022, the rulebook was edited to move to ground effects in Formula 1 which enabled drivers to follow the car ahead closely. Some reports suggest that the outcome is just the opposite but a majority opinion clarifies that it has yielded fruitful results.

Speaking in favour of the new regulations, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said that they have improved the sport. He said: 

“I think what we have observed already last year with this new generation of cars is it's definitely easier to follow in the corners [with the estimated 30% reduction in dirty air].

"So, some tracks where it was very difficult to overtake, like Hungary for instance, they are now tracks in which you can follow.

“Then in the complex where you have the corners and then once you can go out of the last corner, you are actually close to the car ahead and then you can attack thanks to the DRS.

So, I would say this aspect of racing has been helped very much by the new generation of cars.”

However, Stella hints at one downside of the regulation on tracks like Monza and Spa. Though the drawback does not make much of a difference, it still exists. He said:

“When it comes instead to configurations like [Spa] or Monza where you need to have a lot of towing effect to overtake, I think with this generation of cars you have less, let me call it, suction from the car ahead.

"So, in this kind of circuit, it has actually become slightly more difficult possibly.

"So, if you want, this is the two faces of the same medal. But I would welcome the fact that we now can follow cars more easily than it was possible with the previous generation of cars.” 

New regulations come with a positive and a negative impact on the sport. But it all comes down to whether the positive impact outweighs the negative impact by quite a significant margin. The ground effect regulations do just that.