Ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, the Formula 1 teams and the FIA will meet to discuss a number of hot topics that will be raised for possible modifications. In addition to discussions about the impact of budget cap inflation and the latest developments in the engine regulations for 2026, it seems certain that intervention by the international federation for porpoising will be put on the table.
Several teams are known to be unhappy with the governing body’s approach to this, following two Technical Directives that have been published on the matter. Some teams maintain that it is not necessary to change the regulations due to the rebound of the single-seaters, in addition to the fact that others do not see with good eyes that the FIA influences the configuration of the cars, when maximum performance has always been sought in the category .
As one of the crew chiefs voiced: “What’s next? A wet track metric that forces us to switch from dry to wet tires when a certain amount of water has fallen? “.
The director of Red Bull, Christian Horner , believes that it is important that the whole situation regarding the intervention of the international federation is discussed in a transparent way: “I think that is what needs to be discussed. Technical changes should not be allowed, there are a governance and a process for it”.
“So I think we need to talk about why it’s been published,” he continued. “There didn’t seem to be much porpoising in this race [at Silverstone], so the teams are working it out, I don’t think a Technical Directive intervention is necessary.”
Even the Mercedes team, which has been rebounding heavily and would have broken the metric at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix had it been in force, is not sure the FIA needs to get too involved.
When Germans engineering director Andrew Shovlin was asked, he replied, “It wouldn’t be a very good metric if we weren’t above it in Baku, and I think we were probably the only ones who could use it. In Montreal we were already in a more logical position.
“But what we have told the FIA, and we are very supportive of what they do, is that we are going to fix these problems with our own performance,” he said. “So, to be honest, the federation metric is not a particular distraction for us.”
“We sincerely hope that whatever they come up with, we’ll just make the car work the way we want, because that’s what we’re trying to do to make up the lap time.”
One of the consequences of the FIA’s analysis of porpoising is the measure to avoid the tricks that some teams have introduced in their flexible floors . Given the suspicion that some cars have funds and planks that allow them to go closer to the asphalt to have better performance, the governing body plans to increase its vigilance from the French Grand Prix.
However, Horner believes that the federation cannot just intervene in the regulations if the teams have found ingenious interpretations: “The regulations have to be black or white, otherwise I think we will have too complicated documents.”
“And there is also no intention of having a regulation with only two things, so I think that with the commission meeting, in which we will discuss various issues, maybe two hours is not enough,” said the Briton.
