The FIA issued a statement ahead of the 2022 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix in which they demanded that the teams take measures to remedy the problem of porpoising that the category has suffered since the premiere of these new generation single-seaters.
For this reason, many thought that Mercedes had pressured the international federation to implement a rule change, which, in principle, would benefit them to reduce the rebound that has caused their W13 not to be as competitive as they expected.
The head of what was his rival for the world championship last season, Christian Horner , assured that the problem of porpoising was in the concept of the German car, and not in the FIA regulations. In addition, after a weekend full of controversy due to the intervention of the governing body to try to reduce the rebound of the single-seaters, several teams were unhappy with the situation.
At a meeting of team bosses, Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto and Red Bull’s Horner himself clashed with Mercedes’ Toto Wolff for exaggerating the Silver Arrows’ problems so that the federation would take letters on the matter.
The Austrian leader responded angrily, accusing them of putting political benefit before the safety of the pilots. However, the Milton Keyne s manager was adamant that the German team’s problems have nothing to do with the 2022 regulations, which have resulted in cars with very stiff floors.
Instead, he believes it all boils down to Mercedes having gone the wrong way in its W13 concept, and that it only works when they lower the gap to the tarmac.
Asked by Motorsport.com if he thought the porpoising debate was more political than safety, the Briton said: “The Mercedes thing is more serious, or has been more serious [before Canada] than any other single-seater. That depends on the team settings.”
“It’s within your control to deal with it, if it’s not affecting others,” Horner said. “I know some drivers have complained, but our drivers have never complained about porpoising , just that certain circuits could use a resurfacing.
“But we haven’t had rebound problems. They drive the car very stiff, and I think their concept is more wrong than the regulations,” said the director of the energy drinks team.
Horner said he was unimpressed with the way the FIA got involved in the matters of publishing new regulations ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, when the teams were traveling to the event.
He also shared the concerns of other teams, who were wondering how Mercedes had been able to fit a second tie rod on their car so quickly, leading to a general conspiracy in the paddock as to whether the Germans had any information about what Max was planning to do. organism.
“There is a process of introducing these things,” he said. “I think what was disappointing was the second tie. It has to be discussed in a technical forum, which is open to the teams, and they were the only ones who brought it up, even before the announcement.”
The FIA plans to meet with the technical directors this week to try to advance the issue of porpoising , since there is still a medium-term plan to give the teams more reaction capacity for 2023 with modifications to the regulations.
However, Horner is skeptical about the need to do anything drastic, as he thinks next year everyone will have largely solved the problem: “We have some of the brightest engineers in the world, and I doubt we’ll be sitting here next season talking about the rebound if the rules are left like that”.
“These cars are still relatively new, and I think as the teams complete their development we will start to address the hiccups, and you can’t change the technical regulations in the middle of the year.
“If a single-seater is dangerous, a team should not present it, it has that option, or if the FIA considers in particular that a car is dangerous, it always has the black flag as a possibility”, sentenced the boss of the team that leads the general classification constructors with 304 points .
