A Formula 1 car is made up of thousands of intricate components, each one, if you find beauty in engineering, a work of art. Exotic metals are machined into intricate shapes or grown into yet more intricate shapes by 3D printing. Advanced composite materials are analysed to the nth degree to ensure the layup of the various fibres and the resin encapsulating them is the exact solution to a complex three-dimensional problem.
And yet, one of the simplest parts of the car has this year attracted more attention than any of the sophisticated components. I’m talking about the plank or, as it was known in the early days, the skid block. It has attracted particular attention after the disqualifications of Lewis Hamilton in China and Nico Hulkenberg in Bahrain before the more recent, and perhaps more significant, disqualification of both McLaren cars in Las Vegas.
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– The Autosport.com Team