Chapter 7: Downforce

In essence, downforce is a force that's pushing down on the car, and therefore also on the tires. In a way, this is like 'free grip': it doesn't require any weight shifting, that's also why most of the time, the distinction is made between 'mechanical grip' and 'aero grip'. It isn't totally free though: more downforce also means more drag, i.e. more wind resistance, so you'll always have to find the best possible compromise between grip and aerodynamical drag.

Another thing that's very important is the fact that downforce is proportional to speed, more precisely the speed of the air relative to the car. So at low and very low speeds, downforce is negligible. Remember this when you have to set up your car for slow corners: downforce won't have a lot of influence. At high speeds however, downforce is in most cases dominant over the mechanical settings: in high-speed corners, adjusting downforce is the only way to go.