F1’s move to ground effect designs this season triggered headaches in early testing, with most outfits suffering from their cars bouncing down the straights.
Several teams found that the problems were exacerbated at high speed by their floors flexing down at the edges, which better sealed air flow under the car but led to a sudden increase in downforce.
A number of squads, including Mercedes, fitted stays in testing to strengthen the edges of the floor to stop this movement, while a rule change was agreed that allowed their use in grands prix weekends as well.
Alpine says that the concession to allow stays did not help its own cause though, because it had deliberately created a strong enough floor that would not flex in the first place.
It did this even though that meant accepting its car would be heavier than teams who went for a less sturdy flexible solution that suffered subsequent problems.
Pat Fry, Alpine’s chief technical officer, says that the addition of stays meant other…
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