The growing concern about the physical impact and risks of porpoising has become a big talking point over the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend, and was brought up in the F1 driver briefing.
There, it was learned that the director of the Drivers’ Association (GPDA), George Russell, directly asked the FIA to investigate the matter, as he already seems very concerned about the safety implications arising from that rebound at high speed.
“Well, I think it’s only a matter of time before we see a major incident,” said the Briton. “A lot of us can barely keep the car going straight when that happens.”
However, while many drivers share Russell’s concerns, not every team believes that something drastic needs to be done in the short term, especially as it’s not a problem everyone has.
Last year, during discussions about the progress of the 2022 single-seaters, when it became clear that the new cars would have to run at a very low height, the idea of introducing something to eradicate the risk of rebound was mooted.
However, the proposal, which a priori involved a series of technical measures that would have required a minimum height to prevent the cars from being at risk of rebounding, did not have the necessary support, so it was discarded.
But while the teams didn’t see a need for such a thing at the time, the drivers’ mounting concerns seem to at least put the issue back in the FIA’s spotlight.
McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl agreed that the ‘brutality’ of porpoising made it inevitable that the matter would be discussed between the teams and the FIA.
However, he also made it clear that any team can instantly get rid of the problem by raising the height of their car, although that would lead to a loss of performance.
“We understand that the severity that we see in some cars is brutal for the drivers, and so it is a right point to bring to the Technical Advisory Committee, to see if it makes sense to address it,” said Seidl.
“But at the same time, right now, a team knows how to stop it immediately.”
Russell’s boss and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the current situation was not straightforward and he felt it was important to understand why some cars were suffering more than others.
“I think we’ve seen cars that don’t have the problem and then cars that do and suffer more,” he said. “I can speak for both of our drivers – they are having problems and it gets to a point where even a physical therapist sometimes can’t eradicate the discomfort they are having. So we have to see how that plays out and also understand why it is so much more difficult. in some cars than in others.
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto did not think the current single-seaters were particularly problematic to drive, saying more time was needed to understand where things were.
“If we judge Formula 1, I don’t think they are the least comfortable cars to drive, in motorsport terms,” he said.
“I think it’s a challenge for the drivers, for sure. But still, I think those cars are quite comfortable to drive. It’s a challenge, a technical challenge. At Ferrari we made some progress, and I think in the future we can make more progress. So it’s certainly too early to judge.”
