As the team that has faced the biggest challenge in mastering porpoising in its W13, anything that helps to get rid of the rebound effect may seem to help and will benefit Mercedes.
However, if all teams are forced to put in a setup where porpoising isn’t a risk, that could help even out the midzone a bit more.
For this reason, the boss of Red Bull, Christian Horner , suggested after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that any change in the regulations to alleviate this front would be “unfair” for the teams that did not suffer from the problem, but if you delve into what the FIA is planning, it seems that the governing body is approaching things in a slightly different way than the Briton feared.
In fact, there is a possibility that the FIA will impose limits that may hurt Mercedes’ fortunes in the short term rather than help. Although the final details of what the federation intends to do have yet to be announced, the first step is a pure data-gathering exercise.
Starting with this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, the governing body will take telemetry data and conduct a more detailed technical assessment of the cars and their behavior to better understand the impact of porpoising . This work will include a test of the funds and skids located under the cars, but a critical message in the FIA statement is that they are trying to create a metric , based on vertical acceleration loads, to reduce this rebound movement in the future.
The elaboration of that limit will take several weeks, but within a few races it could mean the imposition of a strict regulation of G-forces and the frequency with which the cars touch the asphalt to guarantee that no driver has to endure physical damage, as happened to him. Lewis Hamilton or Daniel Ricciardo in Baku.
If a cap is imposed to that effect, those teams that are able to run their car low would not have to change anything to meet that metric, but those that do have trouble meeting the standard could be in a lot of pain. upside down when it comes to performance.
If the FIA stipulates a maximum tolerance with that metric for ground impact, any kit that is too aggressive in car setup, or too close to the limit, could be forced to make changes to reduce rebound.
That would mean taking the car out of its ideal operating window to ensure compliance with the rules, but it would also mean losing lap time. The riders who suffer from the most porpoising could soon find themselves with a smoother ride after the rebound disappeared, but they would go much slower and drop positions.
However, although there could be short-term damage, those teams that have not managed to control the effect are likely to implement solutions for 2023 before the rest.
Russell’s complaints during the weekend in Baku were more aimed at Formula 1 analyzing whether they wanted to continue having this problem, and the international federation has given the first indications to the teams to be able to eradicate porpoising .
The governing body wants to help grid members to “define measures that reduce the propensity of cars to show these phenomena in the long term”, and the idea is that the category goes beyond the need to establish a limit in the rebound and impose a change in the rules to banish porpoising in the new generation of cars.
That could be achieved by more suspension freedom, even a return to active suspension , or perhaps by making the mass damper legal again. The lack of these types of elements in the suspensions in the current 2022 regulations has been a factor that has prevented Mercedes from taming its W13, but any long-term help would certainly be welcome for the Germans in their attempt to return to top of the podium.
