Cryptopygia
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2007
- Messages
- 3,606
- Car(s)
- Whichever car is still working
I literally facepalmed.
Can anyone explain why the wooden plank is there? Why sparks happened because of how cars were designed and not the other way around? I really don't feel like it.
The plank is there to limit how low the teams can run the cars. It wears down over the course of the race, and a car can be disqualified if the plank is worn too far (How much, I can't recall). It was mandated after Sennas death to slow the cars down. Before then, teams ran the cars extremely low to maximize the ground effect from the air flowing under the car. The sparks were from skid plates mounted under the car, because they often bottomed out over bumps. The problem is, if you run the car too low, it chokes off airflow, and you lose a massive chunk of downforce. The same thing can occur if the car bottoms out over a bump. If this happens in the middle of a turn, you can imagine what happens.