downforce

So the car didn't have enough downforce to cope with the G-forces on it.

Generally with these current cars, the lower they can be run, the more downforce they can create, as long as teams can keep the aerodynamics stable.

"If you're talking about trying to find that amount of lap time in downforce that isn't going to happen in a season and it's never happened in a season," Russell said.

This allows teams to have a car that is faster on the straights for a given level of downforce than would be the case and allows them to circumvent some of the compromises they might otherwise have to make between speed in the corners and speed on the straights.

This method of construction enables teams to build the carbon-fibre in their front-wing in such a way as to have the elements flex downwards at high speed, reducing downforce and therefore oversteer, but have them move back into optimum downforce mode at slower speeds.