Raking it in under pressure
From the moment the regulation floor trim of 2021 was announced there were competing theories about how it would affect the low-rake and high-rake cars respectively. The fact that the two low-rake cars – Mercedes and its relative, the Aston Martin – appeared to have significantly lost competitiveness in the opening race at least suggests that the change has favoured the high-rake concept popularised over the years by Red Bull and subsequently followed by most of the others. As such, the small tweak designed to ease the strain on the rear Pirellis may have fundamentally changed the competitive order.
A diagonal
