List,
One of the big dangers with any form of ground-effect (or more correctly
venturi-effect) is that if the car gets to near the ground then a phenomenon
called 'diffuser-stall' may result. This causes a large and very quick build
up of high pressure under the nose of the car which can will probably cause
very big problems (this is the most likely explanation for Ayrton Senna's
fatal accident at Imola).
Another problem which can occur (and did in the era of full ground-effect in
F1 in the late '70s and early '80s) is that if the car spins and ends up
going down the track backwards then instead of downforce you can quite
easily get large amounts of lift.
Mike Jenkins.
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