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“We focus a lot when we look at a car on the top surface,\u201d she said, turning her attention to the aero trickery designed by Newey and his team. “But it\u2019s actually the undersurface of the car that has to generate a lot of the downforce.<\/p>\n
“And what they\u2019re doing with this nose,” she said, pointing to the front of the car that is clearly different to the rest of the grid. “The top is obviously cutting through the air, if you like, but that bottom chamfered profile is what is controlling how the air breaks away or any stall in the air off the front wing.<\/p>\n
“You want to deliver air further back the car with as little disturbance as possible. You want to be able to use that air to generate more downforce further back on the car. And this very tapered profile initially on the front wing \u2014 and then obviously it gets much more aggressive later on \u2014 will be to try and keep that air in contact with the bottom of the car as much as possible.”<\/p>\n
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The suspension being a major part of the aero set-up is also a Newey hallmark.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdrian Newey,\u00a0the pure aerodynamicist, is pushing for downforce,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s positioning the suspension in a way that is generating downforce or reducing drag\u00a0\u2014 one of those two is his main aim \u2014 and not maybe focused as much on the cornering performance from a mechanical side. And he\u2019s forcing the mechanical suspension into somewhere that other designers might not be happy to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin![\"Fernando](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/9fa95042efad9829a67e0950e9bb174f.jpeg\"\/)
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Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin<\/p>\n
Finally, Collins turned her attention to the floor – the part of the car that defined the previous ground effect ruleset but will be equally as important this season – and the airbox.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe floor in these will also be the one that\u2019s generating the majority of the downforce,” she continued. “You can start to see the rake that we\u2019re getting back into these cars. You can see the back of the car noticeably higher than the front \u2014 which is what we talk about when we talk about rake in the car \u2014 a bit nose-down. That\u2019s really nice to see here.<\/p>\n
“But all of these little vanes that were produced around the front wing or around that airbox, they\u2019re all on purpose. They\u2019ve all got a method of flowing the air to the back, down to the diffuser, trying to get it onto that rear wing, trying to get it onto the floor of the car.<\/p>\n
“The airbox in this is very different to some of the others that we\u2019ve seen \u2014 it was much, much bigger. And that\u2019s one of the beauties of having your own engine manufacturer and your own gearbox: you can control those sort of air intakes as you wish to with the overall design of the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Newey’s car has certainly stolen headlines, but will it perform as well as it looks come the Melbourne race that starts the season? After substantial investment from Lawrence Stroll, he’ll be hoping it pays off.<\/p>\n