F1 teams already rejected rules tweak to eradicate porpoising

A growing annoyance about the physical impact and risks of the ongoing bouncing has become a big talking point over the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend as the matter was brought up in the F1 drivers’ briefing.

Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) director George Russell is understood to have directly asked the FIA to look into the matter, as he is now openly concerned about the safety implications that come from being excessively shaken around at high speeds.

“Well I think it’s just a matter of time before we see a major incident,” said the Briton. “A lot of us kind of can barely keep the car in a straight line over these bumps.”

But while Russell’s concerns are shared by a lot of drivers, not all teams believe that anything drastic needs to be done in the short term – especially as it is a problem not all competitors suffer from.

It has emerged that last year, during discussions about the progress of the 2022 cars, a proposal was put forward to counter concerns about the risk of porpoising.

It is understood that as it became clear how low teams were going to have to run the 2022 generation of cars, the idea of introducing something to eradicate the risk of bouncing was discussed.

But the proposal, believed to involve a series of technical measures that would have effectively mandated a minimum rideheight to lift cars clear from being at risk of porpoising, did not have the necessary support and so was binned.

But while teams did not see the need for something like this back then, the mounting concerns of drivers looks set to at least bring the subject back into the spotlight of the FIA.

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