The Mercedes motorsport boss also revealed the bouncing was so bad around Imola that his drivers were unable to traverse the main straight without lifting off before the Tamburello chicane braking zone, but he said problems with tyre warm-up were behind the Silver Arrows’ massive gap to Ferrari in FP1.
Russell’s car was spotted porpoising heavily as he approached Tamburello during the Friday afternoon practice running – the W13 bouncing so hard that sparks flew from it each time it hit the ground.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after FP1 had finished, Wolff said “we had George bouncing so much that he actually broke the stay on the floor”.
He added: “You can’t drive [down the main straight] – you have to lift on the straight.”
Mercedes fitted the metal floor stays to the W13 for the first time at the end of Barcelona testing, which it topped before introducing a drastically different design for the following second test in Bahrain that has so far been off the ultimate pace.
At the time in Spain these parts were not allowed by the regulations, but the FIA subsequently allowed their inclusion to designs. The stays attempt to stiffen the floors that are flexing and stalling at top speed, which leads to porpoising.
Wolff said of Russell and Lewis Hamilton’s Imola-specific experience so far with porpoising, which has also forced them to back off and lose lap time at the other circuits F1 has visited so far in 2022, that: “They are trained – I have never experienced bouncing like this in my life.
“But it’s clearly not drivable.”
PLUS: How external factors have disguised the true scale of Mercedes’ turnaround task
Both Mercedes struggled in FP1, the only practice session before qualifying later on Friday
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
The championship-leading Ferrari squad is another team that is still encountering severe porpoising after the issue first appeared in the various private team shakedown sessions that preceded winter…
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