Formula 1 drivers from multiple teams and manufacturers have said they have immediate or long-term concerns about the effect of porpoising.
Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton had raised the issue before and after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Russell saying that it was “just a matter of time” before a driver lost control of their car due to the bouncing and Hamilton describing Sunday as the “most painful race” he had ever experienced.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner implied after the race that some rival teams had been especially vocal on the subject in an attempt to sway rules to their benefit. However, concerns about the effects have been raised by drivers from other teams across the grid.
Esteban Ocon said his Alpine’s ride quality is “probably on the best range compared to all the other cars” on the grid at the moment. “But it’s still a disaster,” describing the bumpy ride he has to endure as “terrible”.
He warned that the performance of cars around Baku was a stark warning for how severe the issues might become at this week’s Canadian Grand Prix.
“These cars are on a bumpy circuit and it’s not even that bumpy – when we are going to go to Montreal or Singapore, that’s going to hurt. I’m hearing there might be conversations on how to go technically for the future with the FIA and they are taking that into consideration.
“We should try and make the cars a little bit better to ride because in [Baku] even, we need to avoid the bumps and you can see the car pulling to one side and all that on the straights,” Ocon said, calling the ride “on the edge.”
He admitted he was surprised how much worse the problem became towards the end of the race, when he expected it to improve. “Low fuel it was harsher, basically. And I’ve seen drivers in worse shape than me at the end of the race, probably we are on the good end of the spectrum. But it was definitely not nice.”
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Ocon believes drivers are playing down the severity of the problem because “none of us want to sound like divas or complain that the cars are too hard to drive.
“But we need to realise that it’s not healthy going into the future. It’s not the porpoising necessarily, I think it’s the stiffness of the cars in general, which are [taking] big hits on the long…
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