Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz says the FIA must take immediate action to reduce the physical pain porpoising is causing Formula 1 drivers in the 2022 season.
Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix was one of the most physically demanding drivers have been through in the modern era, with porpoising causing cars to bounce up and down wildly at high speed on the circuit’s long straights, sending heavy loads through drivers’ spines. The effect can be scene from onboard videos, which show racers’ heads ricocheting back and forth.
F1 returned to ground effect car designs this year for the first time since the 1980s, in an effort to allow cars to follow one another more closely and for drivers to race each other harder.
But the aerodynamic shift has brought with it a peculiar quirk known as ‘porpoising’, which sees cars bouncing intensely up and down when travelling at high speeds due to the balance of air beneath the floor shifting forwards and backwards.
While some teams have managed to mitigate the issue to some extent, the problem is persisting, with drivers including Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, and Lewis Hamilton detailing just how much their bodies were struggling during the race in Baku.
Now Sainz says he wants a very quick reaction from motorsport governing body the FIA.
‘We kindly asked the FIA to look into it, not listen to the teams so much and to listen to us,’ said Sainz, quoted by The Race. ‘We are saying it’s getting to a point where we are struggling to handle this.
‘I don’t think we need a medical commission, we just need something smarter on the suspension or the way the cars are being run, where the FIA controls a bit better the possibility of the teams running that stiff, that hard, that kind of ride you see on the straights.
Sainz is firmly of the belief that a simple solution could be found immediately with just a few of the sport’s most talented brains contributing ideas.
‘I’m pretty sure if you ask two or three engineers down the paddock, they will know the answer and what can be done to limit this and regulate it. But we need the FIA to act as soon as possible – if not, it will start accumulating.
The ninth round of the 2022 F1 season will take place this weekend in Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix.
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