“It destroyed our backs”: Pierre Gasly opens up on the physical toll of F1’s ground effect era. Alpine driver Pierre Gasly hits out at the physical toll of the ground effect era.

Pierre Gasly has voiced his thoughts on the major regulatory shift currently facing the F1 paddock. The 2026 cars will officially move away from the current ground effect era, a technical period that has sparked highly polarizing opinions. Among the most negative feedback is the significant physical strain placed on the drivers. The Alpine driver did not hide the fact that the excessive bouncing of the single-seaters created major issues for the athletes, and as a result, he certainly won’t miss this particular characteristic.

“The only thing we haven’t been very happy with as drivers has been the amount of bouncing,” the Frenchman stated. “Obviously, ground effect cars need to be as low as possible, but physically for our backs, I think we all agree that it has been tough. It is not sustainable for an entire career, so I think it is a good thing that they have moved away from it in some way,” he concluded.

Although the 2026 regulations boast new aerodynamic features designed to make severe ground effect a thing of the past, the FIA’s Single-Seater Director, Nikolas Tombazis, recently admitted that the issue might not be entirely eliminated. We now have to wait for the first pre-season tests to find out more about the behavior of the next generation of cars.

As Formula 1 transitions into a new technical era, Pierre Gasly’s comments highlight the urgent need to balance aerodynamic performance with driver safety, ensuring that the 2026 cars provide a more sustainable environment for the athletes’ physical well-being.