The Problem the New Rules Were Built to Fix
Under the pre-2022 rules, F1 cars generated the bulk of their downforce from front and rear wings and a maze of bargeboards, panels mounted ahead of the sidepods to manage airflow around the car. That approach worked well for a single car in clean air but collapsed when a car followed another closely. Engineers calculated that a 2019-specification car following one car length behind another retained only about 55 percent of its normal downforce, a loss severe enough that the trailing car's tires overheated faster and its driver simply could not commit to a pass through most corners.
