The point was that it is lower than the then flat floors, so when the car bottomed out, the entire flow didn’t choke and suddenly lose downforce, only the narrow center section bottomed out.mzso wrote: ↑05 Sep 2024, 08:26It always seemed like a clunky pseudo solution to me. It doesn't actually prevent bottoming out for one.stewie325 wrote: ↑04 Sep 2024, 16:00IIRC the plank - and a related ride height increase - was introduced after events in Imola 94. The intention was to reduce cars' ability to utilise ground effect and improve safety related to bottoming out. Removing the plank would be a reversal of that good intention, so not something that would happen lightly even if technically feasible.mzso wrote: ↑04 Sep 2024, 10:27
Why have planks at all. Suspensions/springs could be made to reach the limit of their movement range before the car bottoming out, right? Or is that too simple and obvious?
I also suspect the floor could be (mandatorily) shaped to make getting close to the tarmac disadvantageous.
It was always there to provide a minimum of floor bottom to asphalt surface height.
Before that the entire floor was flat and could bottom out, thus reducing that gap to zero, and collapsing all underfloor flow, and suddenly kill downforce.