Porpoising silence down to the politics in F1

With all but Fernando Alonso said to have complained about porpoising during a driver briefing but only a handful standing by those comments to the media, Nico Rosberg says that’s the “politics in F1”.

Porpoising, as it has been all season, has been one of the big topics discussed during the pre-race driver briefings.

In Baku, Alonso was the only one of the 19 not to complain about the phenomenon that is a consequence of ground effect aerodynamics.

Toto Wolf told Sky Germany: “All drivers got together and agreed that it’s a problem apart from one – Alonso.”

But later when it came to speaking to the media, while there were definitely more voices calling for change, there weren’t 19.

That was put to Rosberg during Sky Sports’ Any Driven Monday with the 2016 World Champion putting the silence down to “politics”

“Well, you know, that’s the politics in F1,” he said.

“That always plays a big big role and, and the teams that are fastest of course don’t want any changes to happen. That’s clear.

“So that’s why when in public you don’t go with that but behind the closed doors. It’s a better way of doing it. So it’s more more manageable in that way and that’s the F1 has always been there.

“So that’s quite normal.”

The FIA stepped in with a short-term solution to help the drivers complaining of pain, saying from now on they’ll be implementing a maximum level of oscillations and that any car that exceeds that will have its ride height raised.

Asked for his thoughts on the FIA stepping in mid-season to resolve a problem that only some teams have – or at least complain about, the German says that’s a difficult one to answer.

“It’s such a difficult question,” said the former Mercedes driver. “I’m not sure there’s a right answer because, of course, the FIA needs to make sure that drivers are healthy.

“But then one could also say that it should be the responsibility of the team to make sure you’re not injuring your drivers. It’s a difficult one.

“I don’t really know what the right answer is and and I do understand that it wouldn’t be very… it’s difficult and maybe a bit unfair on some teams.”