The FIA’s proposed metric to limit the extent of porpoising is strict enough that Mercedes would have exceeded it at least once this season, the team has admitted.
The sport’s governing body issued an updated technical directive ahead of this weekend’s race stating they have defined a metric to measure excessively severe porpoising. They plan to enforce it as a limit from the French Grand Prix, and any teams who exceed it will be required to make set-up adjustments to their cars.
The Mercedes drivers suffered an especially punishing ride at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku. The team’s technical director Mike Elliott confirmed they would have exceeded the metric at that race.
“From what we’ve heard from the FIA I think it’s something they’re going to have to work on and build and work out how it’s going to work pragmatically,” he said in response to a question from RaceFans.
“I think Baku, going back to it, looking at the race using that metric, Baku is one we wouldn’t have passed.”
The team has had significantly less porpoising at the smoother Silverstone so far this weekend. “If you look at where we were yesterday it wouldn’t have even triggered the metric,” said Elliott.
“So I think it’s difficult. It’s going to be interesting to see how it is applied, how it’s used through the season, because none of us want to be bouncing.”
Before the metric is enforced, Elliott wants the FIA to define what steps teams may take to reduce porpoising without violating restrictions on set-up changes, and without risking cars being disallowed from participating in events.
“The question becomes, ‘if you are exceeding the metric, can you actually fix it during a race weekend’? Because I don’t think any of us want to see cars not taking part or cars thrown out because they’re not able to get on top of those issues.
“I think time will tell whether that metric can be done in the right way, whether that can push teams in the right way without ending up damaging the show. We’ll see what happens. I’m sure the FIA are conscious of that.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
The amount of porpoising cars experience is strongly influenced by the variations between tracks, Elliott added.
“My view is there’s a couple of different versions of bouncing. There’s aerodynamic bouncing which is where the aerodynamics are inputting energy and there’s a version of bouncing which is because these cars are really stiff,…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…