The Engineering Behind Downforce Explained Simply:

A Formula 1 car can go at the speed of 300km/h, and still drive on the ceiling without dropping down. No it's not centrifugal force, no it's not tied up to the ceiling, and no that is not made by animation or AI. But how? Let's find out!

What is Downforce?

In F1 cars or super advanced hypercars, you would see these crazy wings or aerodynamics and maybe even some flaps that can open and close. These technologies create something almost magical, something called downforce. This makes the car slammed on the ground, not by weight of it's own, but by the wind. It helps the car to turn around corners faster, but makes the car perform worse on straight roads. This phenomenon called downforce has its their cousin, called lift. Which is basically the exact opposite.

How Does It Work?

Flaps and wings are like plane aeros turned upside down. Plane aeros work by taking force under the wing, so it creates lift. With enough thrust and lift, the plane takes off. Dowforce is the opposite: It forces the car to stick to the ground by wind coming up, creating drag; so it will not lose any grip on the ground, fly off and hit a happily married couple with two kids watching the race. Wings at the back take wind and use it as a downforce material. Wings are the most commonly found aero on sports cars. Try placing your hand parallel to the ground out the window in a car drive and slowly turn it. You will feel the air hitting more and more, eventually hurting you arm to keep your hand steady.

What's the Cost of It?

Constant downforce means constant drag and grip, which also means heavier work for the car; resulting in lower top-speeds. stable aero is way cheaper and looks cooler when the car is parked, because it always stays there. But it results in more sticking on the ground: which means better speeds at turns, but worse speeds at straight roads. That's why many supersports and hypersports cars manufacturers have been developing something that has gotten popular in the past 10 years which actually deserves to be popular unlike minimalism. Active Aerodynamics!

What are Active Aerodynamics?

Active aerodynamics are something revolutionary, which has been something used very commonly in supersports and hypersports cars. This technology helps the car to still be able to go fast by closing the flaps or hiding the wing, and turn corners way better by opening the flaps and the wing. This doesn't only work for corners though, it also helps the car with top-speed too! If the car isn't built like a spaceship, active aero helps the car throw away air from the back easier, creating a better airflow.

What is Ground Effect?

Ground effect is an aerodynamic principle where air is accelerated under a car through shaped tunnels in the floor. As the air speeds up, pressure underneath drops, creating suction that pulls the car toward the track. This increases grip without adding weight, allowing higher cornering speeds at high velocity. This helps the car to stick to the ground, adding extra grip next to the downforce the car makes. But again, this also has a cost of lower top-speeds. And this is way harder to make like active like the flaps on the car shown in the "Active Aeros" part. So we might have to wait a little longer for active ground effect...

Moment We've All Waited For:

We've learnt how downforce works, what lift and drag does, and what active aero means. And now, we can finally learn how the F1 car stays on the ceiling without falling! Let's find out! F1 cars create MASSIVE amounts of downforce (around 3000kgs), almost exceeding 4 times of its own weight! (800 kgs) But because it's going upside-down, we should probably consider that as lift instead of downforce :) The lift force it makes is around 30000 Newtons, and the gravity pulling down the car is around 8000 Newtons, which is obviously not enough for the car to fall down by gravity!

Conclusion:

We've learnt what drag and grip means, how downforce works, what it is used for, pros and cons of it, what are active aeros, how ground effect is made, and how F1 cars drive on the ceiling. I hope you enjoyed reading this article, thank you for your time!