The Mercedes boss revealed that the bounce off the cars was so strong at Imola that his drivers were unable to run down the main straight without lifting their foot before the Tamburello chicane braking zone, but said problems with warm-up of tires were behind the huge Silver Arrows gap with Ferrari in FP1.
On Friday morning it was possible to see the porpoising George Russell suffered as he approached Tamburello during practice, as the W13 bounced so much that sparks flew every time it hit the ground.
Speaking to Sky F1 after the end of the first free practice session, Wolff assured that “George bounced so much that he broke the support on the ground”.
He added: “You can’t drive [on the main straight], you have to lift [your foot] on the straight.”
Mercedes installed the metal braces on the floor of the W13 for the first time at the end of pre-season testing in Barcelona, which it passed before introducing a drastically different design for those in Bahrain.
Until now, this new concept has not been able to approach the best, but it should be remembered that these parts were not allowed by the regulations in the tests held in Spanish territory.
The FIA later allowed its inclusion in designs, which are intended to stiffen flat bottoms that flex at high speeds, causing porpoising .
Wolff spoke about Russell and Lewis Hamilton’s experience at Imola so far with this rebound effect , which has also forced them to step back and lose lap time at the other circuits F1 has visited so far in 2022.
“They are trained [for this], I have never experienced bounces like these in my life,” explained the Mercedes boss. “But clearly you can’t drive like that.”
Championship-leading Ferrari is another team that continues to encounter severe porpoising , after the problem first surfaced in the teams’ various private shakedown sessions, which preceded winter testing.
Unlike Mercedes, however, the Scuderia isn’t losing pace as a result of having to make set-up changes and can apparently cope with this rebound, even when, on occasion, it comes across as almost comically bad. in the red cars.
“Their porpoising seems a bit different from ours,” Wolff said. “Our frequency seems higher and the main difference is that when they hit the brakes their car stabilizes, ours doesn’t.”
Russell finished nearly five seconds behind FP1 leader Charles Leclerc, with Hamilton a further two seconds back. The two Mercedes teammates finished the session in 10th and 18th position respectively.
But Wolff acknowledges that the big differences with the championship leader in practice were due “to getting grip with the tire due to the temperature. The Ferraris seem to unlock that, everyone else is more or less in the same place”.
“The feedback we are getting from Lewis and George is that there is literally zero grip and these differences point to the tyres,” he concluded.
