Formula 1 testing in Barcelona was a real eye-opener for the teams up and down the grid. A common challenge was getting to grips with so-called ‘porpoising’ ? a bouncing phenomenon caused by the car’s inability to control its platform stemming from extreme swings in downforce generated by the ground effect aerodynamics. As the ground effect aerodynamic load comes on, the car gets lower to the ground, exponentially increasing the underfloor load. If the car’s floor gets too close to the ground or even hits the tarmac, the underfloor flow field is destroyed, suddenly shedding the load, and the car shoots back up to static ride height. Once the ride height goes up to a point where the flow field can recover, the aero load recuperates, and the process repeats. Jody Egginton, Technical Director at Scuderia AlphaTauri, says, ‘With a ground effect floor, getting the most aerodynamic load means running the floors as close to the ground as possible ? there’s an attractiveness in that, and there’s an aerodynamic benefit to do it. So, logically we all try to exploit that. The closer you get to the ground, the higher the risk of inducing instability from things like the floor choking. The floor stiffness can affect behaviour or lead to an oscillation, which means you’re picking upload and then losing it. Ultimately, that’s upsetting to the car’s performance as the aero load on the tire contact patch varies. Load means...