Ground Effect
VerifiedThe underfloor tunnels that generate most of a modern F1 car's downforce, reintroduced with the 2022 regulations.
Since the 2022 rules, F1 cars make most of their downforce from shaped tunnels under the floor rather than wings alone. Air accelerates through the tunnels, which lowers pressure underneath the car and pulls it toward the track, generating grip with less drag than an equivalent amount from wings.
One aim of bringing it back was to let cars follow each other more closely, since ground-effect downforce holds up a bit better in another car's wake than the old wing-heavy cars did.
It came with a side effect early on: at high speed the floor could stall and reattach in a rapid cycle, bouncing the car violently down the straights. That bouncing, 'porpoising', was largely tamed through floor and suspension changes over the following seasons.