About this design
Anyone who saw this race live will not forget Mansell's passing of Ayrton Senna. Coming down the 190-200mph straight unstable and sparking side by side into a 90 degree plus bend.
The preamble to the moment had the titanium strike plates on the underside of the cars in near continuous contact with the track on the straight as the down force at nearly 200 mph compressed the cars' suspensions. The cars were wheel to wheel for about half the length of the straight. Mansell's car had the grunt to get out of Senna's slipstream and come along side but apparently not enough to pull away. Bernoulli's principle courtesy of the air flow between to the two cars destabilized the cars laterally, ultimately drawing them closer and closer to together as they screamed toward their date with a difficult bend.
In a conversation I had with a racing driver, competitive braking was described to me as the most visceral and difficult racing experience. The explanation went something like “Your senses are screaming BRAKE BRAKE BRAKE but you have to ignore them and ignore them and ignore them until what seems to be a point beyond reason.” Interesting to imagine what was going through Mansell's mind. Certainly Senna was the first to blink on this occasion.
