3 replies to this topic

[WHITE]

For 1983 season FIA regulations required cars to have a flat bottom which must hide any part of the car when seen from below - bottom view - .

In fact, that season, several cars had little extensions of the flat bottom to hide the rear-view mirrors,
however for the following season one could see how some cars had the bottom occupying the entire permitted 
area... even though there was nothing to hide above.

Had the rules changed or did the engineers simply take advantage of the entire area allowed for the bottom
when they saw that they could obtain some aerodynamic gain?

What do the current regulations say about this?

Is the presence of the flat bottom allowed even if there is nothing above to justify it?

Thank you.

Edited by WHITE, 01 October 2023 - 12:55.

[PayasYouRace]

The rule was that the floor must be flat and obscure any other bodywork as seen from below. In later years things like mirrors were given some exceptions I think. There was never any rule that there had to be any bodywork above the floor. As a larger floor meant more air to feed into the diffuser (the exception from the flat floor rule), it was beneficial to make it as large as possible.

[WHITE]

"The rule was that the floor must be flat and obscure any other bodywork as seen from below."

Yes, but if both the flat bottom and what was above were limited to the same defined area, there could be

nothing beyond that area but the bodywork did not always cover the entire area! However, my doubt is that

if the bottom was subordinate to what it was supposed to hide... how come that said bottom was

extended to the whole permitted area even when there was nothing to hide above!

 

 

"There was never any rule that there had to be any bodywork above the floor."

No, the rule only limited the area where there could be any part, but it did stated that the floor was

supposed to obscure any part that could be above.

[PayasYouRace]

I’m not sure what part you’re struggling with. The floor had to obscure any part that could be above. That doesn’t mean there had to be anything else there.

That’s where the coke bottle designs came from, starting with McLaren in 1983. They maximised the bodywork dimensions at floor level, and used less than the available maximum above that, as they were permitted to do.

If A then B, does not mean if B then A.