Lighter rivals helped out ‘massively’ by F1 floor stay concession

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…