 Racing cars had only been using their bodywork to generate downforce for just over a decade when Colin Chapman's Lotus 78 and 79 cars demonstrated that ground effect was the future in Formula One, so, at this point, under-car aerodynamics were still very poorly understood.To compound this problem the teams that were keenest to pursue ground effects tended to be the more poorly funded British "garagiste" teams, who had little money to spare for wind tunnel testing, and tended simply to mimic the front-running Lotuses (including the Kauhsen and Merzario teams).This led to a generation of cars that were designed as much by hunch as by any great knowledge of the finer details, making them extremely pitch-sensitive.