Mercedes feel that they have dissected their problem with porpoising

The problem was severe on its vehicles that concerned the drivers about the physical discomfort prompted the FIA to intervene to aid.

Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes at Imola. (Image: Twitter/ Mercedes-AMG-PETRONAS F1 team)
By Niranjan Shivalkar | Jun 21, 2022 | 2 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

Mercedes Petronas-AMG had a rough start to the 2022 season, with its W13 experiencing hopping and hollowing out. The problem has been so severe on its vehicles that concerns from George Russell and Lewis Hamilton about the physical discomfort they are experiencing prompted the FIA to intervene to aid. However, following an impressive Canadian Grand Prix weekend in which the team was possibly its most competitive in terms of pace so far this season, finishing third and fourth, team chief Toto Wolff has highlighted how the team’s pendulum has swung.

Toto is happy

Toto Wolff feels the Montreal weekend demonstrated that the porpoising issue in which the vehicle slides vertically and horizontally as weight increases on the straight has been eliminated as a result of the team’s efforts. The difficulty for Mercedes currently is how much the vehicle contacts the ground when the course is rough, as a result of the incredibly rigid and low ride height setup that was required to get its car running properly.

‘In a way we have dissected the bouncing’

“I think in a way we have dissected what we define as porpoising or bouncing, and it is that the porpoising, which is the aerodynamic movement of the car, I think that’s solved and we got on top of this around Barcelona. It is more that the ride of the cars is really what causes the comments of the drivers. The cars are simply all too stiff. The kerb ride is bad, the bump ride is bad and I would say that now, by dissecting this problem, you can tackle it better.” expressed Wolff.

Read more: F1 teams to meet with the FIA to discuss porpoising remedies

Mercedes is catching up

Wolff believes Mercedes’ development on porpoising has placed its vehicle in a comparable making amendments to rivals, who also look to be straining from how rigid things must be run. What we see in the cars is just the stiffness. “You look at some of the slow motions from the two leading cars and the Alpines, you see that they are bouncing off the kerb in a very hard way. This is what the drivers actually complained about, the stiffness of the car. This is something we need to look at: how we can reduce the impact.” said Wolff.

Finding performance

With Canada emphasizing that Mercedes still wanted to enhance the car’s performance, Wolff believes the key to make progress was to attempt to unlock more speed from the car at a wider variety of ride heights. “I think we just need to put more load in the car, more downforce and equally do that with a car that is not as low on the ground as we expected. It’s a clear direction: you can see the cars going higher. And this is where we need to find the performance.” said Toto.