The FIA issued a technical directive ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, declaring that it will work to reduce the porpoising phenomena.
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The FIA issued a technical directive ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, declaring that it will work to reduce the porpoising phenomena that has plagued a number of teams under the new 2022 regulations. This will result in a data-gathering exercise in Montreal to determine how much the cars are moving up and down before potentially imposing movement limitations that will compel certain teams to boost the ride heights of their vehicles at the expense of performance.
The decision was made when drivers in Baku expressed safety concerns after bouncing at high speeds on the rough street track, causing many of them serious agony. This year, though, not all teams have had trouble with porpoising on their vehicles. While Mercedes has been one of the worst-affected teams, Red Bull has done a good job of dealing with the problem. Christian Horner, Red Bull’s team principal, remarked in Baku that he considered it would be unjust for the FIA to modify the regulations in the middle of the season, potentially affecting teams that were not affected.
“Regardless if it’s going to help us or work against us, always these rule changes in the middle of the year, I don’t think is correct. Of course I understand the safety part of it, but I think if you talk to every engineer in the paddock, if you raise your car, you will have less issues anyway. Naturally I think ourselves, but also the team, you’re going to try to find the limit of what you can cope with, your body itself, for performance.
“But I don’t think it’s correct now they have to intervene and start applying these kind of rules, that if you can’t deal with the porpoising that you have to go up on ride height, because it is very simple: just go up on ride height and you won’t have those issues. I think it will be hard to police in a way, but we’ll see.” expressed Verstappen.
After reporting an increasing number of physical concerns, the majority of drivers applauded the FIA’s move to intervene. On Friday in Canada, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton admitted that he had been suffering from more headaches this season, while AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly claimed the FIA needed to cease porpoising so that they didn’t wind up with a cane at 30.
Read more: FIA’s new rules for porpoising may not be a positive change for Mercedes
However, Verstappen contrasted F1 to a number of other sports in which the physical toll of participating accumulates over time, and he believed it was crucial not to overestimate the potential impact of porpoising. “There are a lot of sports out there where I think you damage your body in general. You can always judge if that is the safest thing to do, no, but we are willing to take risks, that is our sport and that is what I love to do.”
