While Ferrari tries to keep air in the middle, Red Bull pushes it to the side.
Verstappen has good news about RB18: "Little affected by porpoising"
Max Verstappen states that Red Bull Racing no longer suffers from bouncing due to the ground effect, also known as porpoising. Mercedes certainly experienced a lot of inconvenience on Friday afternoon with Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel, but according to Verstappen it is not that bad in the RB18. It should therefore not be a problem for the first race in Bahrain.
"The regulations have of course changed quite a bit", Max Verstappen kicked off the conversation with the Dutch press in the paddock.
"A lot of downforce is generated by the floor and the faster you go, the more the car is sucked towards the tarmac," he explains the basic principle of ground effect.
"Then the car comes down and at some point there comes so much pressure that the floor goes into a stall. The faster you go, the more the floor will do that. That's the whole problem." It causes headaches, although in theory the solution is quite simple. "You can solve it in different ways. First of all by looking at the floor and finding out why exactly that stalling happens. The second option is to raise the ride height. Then you are less bothered by it, but you lose a lot of money. a lot of down force."
It will force some teams to make compromises in ride height between qualifying and the race, although that is not an issue at Red Bull. "No, not for us. We are not really bothered by it. I have to say: we have already tried a few things in Barcelona and since we arrived here in Bahrain, we are not really bothered by it anymore," Verstappen said to a question from Motorsport.com.
Asked whether Red Bull Racing has already adjusted the ride height slightly as a precaution, the world champion responds:
"Well, it's more a matter of learning how to adjust such a car and what else you can do. That's looking pretty good now."