• Vivaan Narayan Keluskar

The 2026 Formula One Technical Regulations (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) introduce a revised aerodynamic framework intended to reduce wake sensitivity while maintaining underfloor-dominated downforce generation. Within this framework, a notable and explicit allowance is made for flexibility in the fillet joining the front floor bib to the main floor, primarily justified on grounds of ground-contact compliance. This paper investigates the hypothesis that this permitted flexibility may be exploited as a passive aeroelastic mechanism to achieve performance gains while remaining fully regulation compliant. The first half of the study establishes the physical foundations governing ground-effect aerodynamics, boundary-layer behaviour near the ground plane, and the extreme sensitivity of underfloor pressure fields to millimetric geometric variation. Historical precedents of both legal and prohibited aeroelastic or compliance-based innovations in Formula One and related series are then examined to contextualize the regulatory philosophy surrounding passive deformation (Racecar Engineering; Autosport; Motorsport.com). Finally, a technical engineering analysis is presented, modelling the front floor fillet as a compliant structural element subjected to aerodynamic loading. Using simplified beam and plate theory, it is shown that realistic composite structures can exhibit millimetre-scale elastic deformation under racing loads, sufficient to meaningfully alter local Venturi throat conditions and pressure recovery behaviour. The central hypothesis advanced is that a carefully engineered, passively flexible front floor fillet can dynamically reshape the underfloor inlet geometry as a function of aerodynamic load, improving downforce consistency and potentially reducing drag at high speed, without violating movable aerodynamic device restrictions. The paper deliberately avoids computational fluid dynamics and instead relies on first-principles analysis, regulatory interpretation, and historical analogy to demonstrate both feasibility and legality.

Formula One, Aerospace Engineering, Aeroelasticity

"Passive Aeroelastic Exploitation of Front Floor Fillet Flexibility Under the 2026 Formula One Technical Regulations", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.13, Issue 2, page no.a456-a466, February-2026, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2602063.pdf

"Passive Aeroelastic Exploitation of Front Floor Fillet Flexibility Under the 2026 Formula One Technical Regulations", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.13, Issue 2, page no. ppa456-a466, February-2026, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2602063.pdf