"It's always a big topic" - F1 director Ross Brawn claims the FIA is working on floor stiffness for 2022 cars

F1's managing director Ross Brawn has confirmed that the FIA is 'on top of things' with regard to the stiffness of the floors of the next-generation of cars.

During an interview with F1 TV, Brawn touched on how scrutineering was being done ahead of the 2022 season. He said:

“I think floor stiffness will be a big topic for sure. It’s always a big topic. And when you get a new set of regulations, the teams start to understand which areas are sensitive from a stiffness perspective. There’s a very obvious one of rear wing stiffness, if you can keep your wing in the right position in medium speed corners, but it droops when you go down the straight, you lose drag, everyone knows that.”

Brawn went on to add, saying:

“But the sensitivity of these floors is still to be fully understood. I think the FIA are on top of it with load tests and stiffness tests, because nothing is infinitely stiff. So to say the floor must be stiff means nothing. It’s a question of putting load parameters around it, deflection parameters around it, and saying that’s what we feel is acceptable. And the FIA are well into that at the moment.”

F1 teams have struggled to adapt to the new rules, mainly while dealing with the amount of flexing of components permitted by the FIA. Front wings, rear wings and floor boards have become the focus of attention for most teams as they scramble to find solutions that don't add too much weight to the car.

F1's new regulatory changes have seen the minimum weight limit of cars shoot up to 795 kgs in 2022. Despite the increase from the previous allotment of 752 kgs, teams have struggled to meet that limit and as a result have also agreed on a three kgs addition to it.

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F1 teams want stiffer floors to reduce porpoising, claims Ross Brawn

During the aforementioned interview with F1 TV, Brawn also stated that teams will want stiffer floors to reduce the porpoising effect of the new cars.

Porpoising is a phenomenon that causes the new cars to violently bounce up and down on their rear suspensions at near top speeds. The name comes from cars imitating the motion that porpoises make when moving through the ocean and is limited to ground-effect cars.

According to Brawn, a stiffer floor could see that reduced. He said:

“I think what’s going to be introduced before the race is a new strut on the floor to try and achieve stiffness. Because the teams that have been having porpoising issues, some of it is the challenge of keeping the floor stiff enough, they actually want the floor to be stiffer, because some of the porpoising is coming from the floor deflecting. And so that’s another element they’ve got to deal with.”

Meanwhile, teams are currently conducting pre-season testing in Bahrain with the first Grand Prix of the year mere days away.