Dirty Air

Dirty air refers to the turbulent wake created by a Formula 1 car as it moves through the air. When a car travels at high speed, it disturbs the air around it, creating a turbulent wake behind it. A following car driving through this dirty air experiences reduced aerodynamic downforce — the turbulent air is less effective at generating downforce than clean, undisturbed air. This means a car following closely behind another car is slower through corners, making it difficult to get close enough to attempt an overtake. The dirty air problem was a major concern in F1 from the 1990s onwards, as aerodynamic complexity increased. The 2022 regulations were specifically designed to reduce the dirty air problem by moving more of the downforce generation to the underfloor (ground effect), which is less sensitive to turbulent air.

Dirty air has been a problem in F1 since aerodynamic downforce became significant in the late 1960s. The problem became more acute as cars became more aerodynamically complex. The 2022 regulations were specifically designed to address the dirty air problem.