Lewis Hamilton says some of Mercedes rivals are coping better than they are with the ‘porpoising’ problem many teams have experienced in testing.
Formula 1 teams have found their cars are bouncing on their suspension at high speed, due to the difficulty of optimising the airflow through the ‘tunnels’ permitted by new rules for 2020.
Mercedes became the centre of attention yesterday when they introduced a radical upgrade to their W13’s sidepods. But Hamilton said that despite the change, the car’s performance feels worse in some respects compared to the previous test.
“The package is very similar,” said Hamilton, “it’s just really the wind, the bouncing that we have – we still have that this week, if anything it’s worse – so we’re just working through lots of different scenarios, trying to work out how to hold onto the downforce and not have it bouncing as it was in the last test.
“I think everyone’s probably in a similar boat. Some have managed to get…