While the teams were required to carry over the vast majority of their 2020 car designs for use this season, changes to F1’s technical rules mandated that a triangle-shaped area of the rear floor had to be removed.
This was part of an attempt to cut downforce levels by up to 10% of what the cars were producing in 2020, which also included a reduction in the size of rear diffuser strakes, to lower speeds and reduce the risk of tyre failures.
During winter testing, where Mercedes notably struggled with rear handling, suggestions emerged that the low-rake aerodynamic concept the team uses was losing out when it came to recouping downforce lost to the reduced rear floors compared to the high-rake concept pioneered by Red Bull early in the last decade.
On Friday, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff confirmed that this was “definitely” occurring, with the situation also impacting the Aston…
