Ground Effect is an aerodynamic phenomenon created by exploiting the undercarriage design of cars. It has been used as the base for the production of the cars used in the 2022 Formula One Season.
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The discovery of the Ground Effect is generally credited to Colin Chapman, who at the time was working for Team Lotus. Ground Effect, in its raw core, is a very specific exploit of the Venturi Effect in the undercarriage or floor of the car.
This is heavily based on fluid dynamics. When a fluid (such as air) flows through space, it prefers streamlined flow, which means that the number of particles of air entering the space is the same as the number of particles exiting it. When there is less space available, the fluid simply speeds up. This finally results in a pressure difference being created above and below the car. As the air tries to rush to the low-pressure area, it pushes the car down, creating massive amounts of downforce.
The Lotus 79, the crown jewel of "Ground Effect" Formula One cars
The ground effect first came into F1 through British Racing Motors or BRM in 1968, when their engineers Tony Rudd and Peter Wright carried out several experiments on cars in a wind tunnel. Although they did not use a "true" ground effect car, they still managed to create a basic prototype. Around the same time, Colin Chapman sponsored Shawn Buckley, a fellow Ground Effect pioneer, to conduct research in the Berkeley branch of the University of California. Further research by Robin Herd (March Engineering) and Martin Ogilvie enhanced the understanding of the Ground Effect. This culminated in Lotus entering the Rudd, Wright, Chapman, Buckley, and Ogilvie designed Lotus 78 in the 1977 and 1978 Formula One Season. When the car worked well, it was uncatchable. So confident were Lotus in their car that they chose to not enter a new car for the first part of the 1978 season. Other teams tried to copy the design for the next season, but could not understand the phenomenon as the undercarriage was hidden by the car's side skirts. By the time the teams understood what Lotus had exploited, Lotus launched the Lotus 79, which was just a more developed model of the 78. In all, Lotus designed early Ground Effect cars that took 14 wins, 19 Pole positions, and 227 points over their career.
The Brabham BT 46 otherwise known as the Fan Car
One interesting contender for the non-Lotus Ground Effect car was the Brabham BT46B, better known as the "fan car". The car used a fan mounted on a horizontal axis powered by the gearbox of the car. Even though the fan was claimed to be for cooling purposes, later investigations revealed that it was designed to produce ground effect downforce. The car won the only race it took part in, the1978 Swedish Grand Prix with Niki Lauda at the wheel.
However, in 1983, the FIA deemed the design dangerous, and hence banned it. It was because the venturi tunnels in the cars were designed in such a way that upon contact with the ground, they would purge the car of all its downforce. Going through high-speed corners, was too dangerous as the cars would skid off.
Following the massive regulations overhaul of the 2022 Formula One Season, Ground Effect returned as a part of car design to allow for closer racing, and the advanced safety features allow them to be safe.
Porpoising[]
One significant drawback of the Ground Effect is porpoising. This is the term for when the car's floor touches the road and loses all the downforce it has. This sudden loss of downforce pushes the car up, and then the venturi tunnels reinstate the downforce, prompting the cycle to continue endlessly. This is especially seen on high speed, bumpy and downhill sections of the circuit. The porpoising problem has many solutions. Mercedes and McLaren employed a quick fix to the issue, by raising the floor height, they have made porpoising less frequent down the straights. Red Bull chief designer Adrian Newey, has designed the aerodynamical characteristics of the Red Bull RB18 in such a way that the aerodynamics counter the porposing. Although the reason for this is not completely understood yet by aerodynamicists other than Newey and those of Red Bull, this was discovered by Newey a long time ago, when designing Emerson Fittipaldi's Lotus in 1982, as reported in his autobiography.