“We could have copied what Audi, Porsche and Toyota are doing, but it would have been difficult to beat them by doing that,” Bowlby tells me. “They’ve got more experience and have put a lot of resources into their cars.



“But if you look at the regulations you’ll see that while the aerodynamics at the rear of the cars are very controlled in terms of the wing you can run and the underbody diffuser, they’re much more open at the front. There are opportunities in the regulations.”



So, the front splitter is basically an inverted wing, channeling huge amounts of air under the car, but diffusing it almost immediately to create downforce, rather than waiting until the back of the car.



The trouble is what to do with all this used air that’s still under the front of the car. Well, Bowlby has created two huge air tunnels, which run the length of the car from just after the front splitter all the way through to the back. And when I say huge, I mean huge. Bowlby showed me a picture on his phone of one of the mechanics entirely inserted into one of the tunnels.



So all that air that’s used at the front of the car is got rid of cleanly and efficiently and also has the benefit of reducing drag at the back of the car as it’s pushed out over the top of the rear diffuser.