During pre-season testing McLaren worked hard to resolve its porpoising issues and since then the car seems to have improved a lot.
However, the Canadian Grand Prix turned into a weekend to forget. “We will do everything we can to recover from Montreal. We have some news in store and everything will be very different again,” Norris said of the upcoming Silverstone race.
“It will also be interesting to see how the new FIA technical directive on porpoising works as that will be when it comes into force and that was our big problem in Canada. We are in a bit of a dilemma.”
The International Automobile Federation presented a new technical guideline the day before the start of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend to lessen the negative effects of porpoising and help, among others, Mercedes, the team that seems to suffer the most.
Lewis Hamilton had to endure so many rebounds at the Azerbaijan GP that his back went numb. At McLaren , this phenomenon only affected during winter testing, but the Woking team quickly got rid of it.
“To be honest, it doesn’t bother us too much, so we’re not pushing for a change [in the rules]. But safety comes first,” said the young Briton.
“If there is a possibility that some drivers will continue to suffer in the long term and may even lose concentration and crash, then something has to be done. But I understand both sides.”
Ferrari and Red Bull are the teams that are most opposed to a change of rules in the middle of the course for obvious reasons, since both are fighting for the title and it affects them much less. The F1-75 of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz does bounce, but neither of them has yet complained of unbearable physical pain, at least at the level of what drivers from other teams have done.
Meanwhile, the RB18 of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez does not suffer rebounds and Norris understands the reason why they do not want changes in the 2022 rules: “The two leading teams have reacted better to the new regulations, so I understand that they do not they want to see a change in the middle of the year.
“On the other hand, as long as they don’t experience how painful this problem can be, they won’t do anything about it. But just because it doesn’t bother you now doesn’t mean it won’t bother you in the long run. These rules are going to stick around for a while.” .
Norris was sympathetic and assured that if it was a problem that affected him personally, he would appreciate the support of the other drivers and teams on the grid: “I would like to receive that support when it comes to my health,” Norris told The Telegraph .
“The important thing for me is that it is something fair for all Formula 1 drivers. On the other hand, the ideal is to plan these changes after the season, but it is true that it affects some more than others.”
“We have also designed our car with a certain philosophy, if there are changes in the rules, we could lose the course of development, but it could also be the other way around. We’ll see, there are people much smarter than me to solve this,” he concluded. from McLaren .
