The entire lower section of two teams’ 2027 sidepods looks set to be redesigned, after the FIA moved to shut down a regulatory carve-out that gave Red Bull one of the most striking aerodynamic signatures of the current season.
The governing body plans to limit the permitted width/dimension around a sidepod support stay from 20mm down to just 5mm when the 2027 technical regulations take effect. The change was reported in the run-up to the United States Grand Prix weekend in Austin, with the Circuit of the Americas hosting the race on October 25.
The cable that bent the rules
The trick centers on what the rulebook calls a “floor body stay”. In practice, that is a slender support cable running along the ridge of the sidepod.
Where general F1 regulations enforce a large minimum radius to avoid overly sharp aerodynamic edges on sidepod bodywork, the rules made an exception near this floor body stay, allowing a much tighter radius of just 20mm. Red Bull used this 20mm allowance to form an unusually sharp fence and undercut at the lower sidepod, channeling cleaner air around the floor edge than rivals had found a way to replicate.
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Technical analyst Craig Scarborough, who drew attention to the concept on social media, broke it down:
“For aero you’d like sharp sidepod edges, but regs enforce a large minimum radius,” he wrote. “Red Bull fit this ‘floor body stay’, which is a cable running down the ridge of the sidepod. Rules allow body work near this to have just a 20mm radius.”
The design first appeared on the RB22 at the Austrian Grand Prix in June, and Audi followed with a similar solution a few rounds later at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.
What a 15mm cut costs
Reducing the permitted floor stay dimension from 20mm to just 5mm effectively closes the loophole and bans the sharp configuration. Any car built around this sharp lower-sidepod fence will have to be smoothed out, which means tearing up the whole lower bodywork and rebuilding it, not just softening a single surface.
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Red Bull has the most to lose, having spent the current season banking the aerodynamic gain the stay unlocks. Audi also inherits a redesign bill ahead of 2027, as it works to close the gap to Mercedes and McLaren.
The updated rules come into force at the start of the 2027 season, giving Red Bull and the Hinwil-based Audi outfit time to redraw the lower bodywork before the revised cars run.
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