The FIA will step in to reduce the porpoising affecting Formula 1 cars this season “in the interests of safety”, the sport’s governing body has announced.
Many teams across the grid have struggled with the problem this season, with a new aerodynamic design of the cars having an unfortunate side effect. The bouncing of the cars has not only affected the performance of some cars, but it has caused discomfort for drivers.
Several have now come out to suggest changes need to be made to car designs in the interest of safety. That follows a particularly bumpy Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton the most affected as his bouncing Mercedes left him with severe back pain.
The FIA will step in to reduce the porpoising affecting Formula 1 cars this season “in the interests of safety”, the sport’s governing body has announced.
Many teams across the grid have struggled with the problem this season, with a new aerodynamic design of the cars having an unfortunate side effect. The bouncing of the cars has not only affected the performance of some cars, but it has caused discomfort for drivers.
Several have now come out to suggest changes need to be made to car designs in the interest of safety. That follows a particularly bumpy Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton the most affected as his bouncing Mercedes left him with severe back pain.
His team-mate George Russell has also been particularly vocal about this issue, having suffered a lot of porpoising in his own car over the Baku weekend. They have been supported by the likes of Ferrari ‘s Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo of McLaren in calling for the drivers’ safety and wellbeing to be prioritised.
On Thursday, the FIA announced a technical directive which will lead to both short term and long term measures being put in place. Those measures are not expected to be enforced at this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, due to the short notice, but going forward there could be significant changes to car designs.
“The FIA, as the governing body of the sport, has decided that, in the interests of the safety, it is necessary to intervene to require that the teams make the necessary adjustments to reduce or to eliminate this phenomenon,” the FIA said in a statement.
It went on to add that the measures the FIA intends to take to get rid of porpoising include “closer scrutiny of the planks and skids, both in terms of their design and the observed wear”, and “the definition of a metric, based on the car’s vertical acceleration, that will give a quantitative limit for acceptable level of vertical oscillations”.
Teams across the F1 paddock will be invited to give their opinions on what that quantifiable limit for porpoising should be, giving the likes of Red Bull chief Christian Horner the chance to voice their opposition to any FIA intervention. “It would seem unfair to penalise the [teams] who have done a decent job versus the ones who have perhaps missed the target slightly,” he said after the Baku race.
“The FIA has decided to intervene following consultation with its doctors in the interests of safety of the drivers,” the governing body’s statement added. “In a sport where the competitors are routinely driving at speeds in excess of 300kph, it is considered that all of a driver’s concentration needs to be focused on that task and that excessive fatigue or pain experienced by a driver could have significant consequences should it result in a loss of concentration.
“In addition, the FIA has concerns in relation to the immediate physical impact on the health of the drivers, a number of whom have reported back pain following recent events.
