Williams believes new F1 floor rules could help it
Williams thinks there is a chance that new floor rules for 2021 could help it make further progress up the Formula 1 grid.
As part of a number of regulation tweaks coming for this year aimed at cutting downforce to help lessen the stress put on tyres, teams will have to deal with tighter restrictions around the floor areas.
In particular, they will be required to cut away a section of the floor ahead of the rear tyre and will be banned from using slots in this region.
Teams have been exploiting this area of the car for some time, to help better feed air through the diffuser for added downforce.
With the top outfits potentially exploiting the floor designs better than the smaller teams, because of the vast resource needed to fully understand this complex area, Williams suspects that removing it will even things out for everyone.
And that means there is a chance that top teams like Mercedes and Red Bull could be hindered more by losing the benefits of this area than some outfits further down the order.
Williams’ head of vehicle performance Dave Robson thinks the change could well be quite significant, and may be good news for his outfit.
“It is a major change to the floor, particularly that area close to the rear tyre,” he said. “It is an area where we suspect we're not class leader, let's say, so hopefully for us it's less of a hit than some of those other teams.
“I think it is traditionally a very difficult area to understand, particularly how the floor will react to the tyre as it deforms and ages and wears.
“So hopefully it will have quite a big effect for the teams at the sharp end and perhaps less so for us. That's what we're hoping and hopefully there's some early indications from the running we did on Friday [in Abu Dhabi] that that might be the case.”
A number of outfits have already tested the new floor designs during Friday free practice sessions this year, to try to better understand the implications of the changes.
The FIA is hoping that the new 2021 rules will cut downforce levels by around 10 percent, with cars set to be further slowed by more robust tyres from Pirelli.
Share Or Save This Story
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
James Vowles explains request for review of F1 cost cap
Williams Racing is suing a local garage owner for £1million
How Fernando Alonso scored ninth at Zandvoort - and how Alex Albon lost a similar payday
Winners and losers from NASCAR Cup at Charlotte after dramatic finish
Charles Leclerc admits he missed a chance against Max Verstappen – but not the obvious one
Could Alpine-Geely deal to save WEC hypercar programme fall through?
‘I’ll put a pillow under his butt’ – How Toto Wolff wants to solve Kimi Antonelli’s track limits problem
'Senior moment' or breakdown of trust? The implications of Hamilton's Singapore GP meltdown
What we learned from the 2026 F1 Singapore GP sprint and qualifying
How Honda plans a return to being an F1 powerhouse
Why Red Bull's 'crazy' power unit success matters so much for F1
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments