Many teams, including the reigning constructors' champions, Mercedes, appear to have been caught off guard by the aerodynamic phenomenon.
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Mattia Binotto, Ferrari’s chief, believes that the issues over so-called ‘porpoising’ will soon die down in Formula One circles. Many teams, including the reigning constructors’ champions, Mercedes, appear to have been caught off guard by the aerodynamic phenomenon caused by the radical reversion to ground effect cars this year.
“It seems like Red Bull and Ferrari have managed to control it now,” said former Indycar star Patrick Carpentier, as per La Presse. “Ferrari is saying they have a new floor. Personally, the lack of sidepods on the Mercedes means that the floor is more exposed than other cars, so it must be exposed to these kinds of torsional effects,” he added.
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Gerhard Berger, a former Formula One driver, said he had experienced ‘porpoising’ during his own grand prix career. “We had that too – in the 80s,” he told Servus TV. “I remember going to Monza and hardly being able to see the track because of the vibrations.”
However, Binotto has been consistent with his view that porpoising would not be much of a factor in the 2022 season. Ferrari did face the challenge during the pre-season testing in Barcelona but the Scuderia seemed to have gotten on top of it by the time they reached Bahrain. The prancing horse has been tipped to be one of the strongest teams this year, something that their boss has rubbished.
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“I’m not myself capable of judging the others,” he said. “But we should be very good to judge ourselves and I don’t think we will be [the] winner.”
“I think both Red Bull and Mercedes have very strong and fast cars, and those teams are very strong as well. I can see that even on the last day [of the test] Red Bull have brought upgrades to their car, proving and showing how good they are in the development, which is critical from now to the first race.”
“Maybe Mercedes as well will improve further. So they are very strong, very fast and I hope that we can be outsiders. I hope that we can somehow try to challenge them. That would be great from our side,” the Italian added.
