TECH WEEKLY: How Red Bull’s Hungary upgrades aim to solve an inherent conflict in F1’s ground effect cars

The big bodywork, floor and front wing changes Red Bull brought to the Hungaroring are specifically for higher downforce tracks and are not expected to be raced at Spa this weekend. But they are targeted at a generic problem suffered by all the teams – that of combining the most total downforce with good chassis balance.

Specifically, there is a conflict with this generation of cars between the balance through low and high-speed corners. The regulated underfloor and front wing dimensions tend to exaggerate the tendency for an F1 car to understeer at low speeds and oversteer at high.