Mercedes driver George Russell has hit back at Red Bull team principal Christian Horner’s claim that drivers including Russell’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton are merely ‘b*tching’ about the physical impact of porpoising in Formula 1.
F1 has 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. So far, the changes seem to be having the desired effect, with Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen engaging in thrilling tactical tussles for the lead in the opening rounds.
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, drivers’ heads are frequently seen ricocheting back-and-forth violently throughout races, and fans and pundits alike have called for the FIA to regulate against the issue in future to protect drivers’ health.
Earlier this season at Imola, Hamilton and Russell were having to lift off the throttle on the straights to protect themselves from the effects of porpoising, while Hamilton was suffering from back pain so intense during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday that he struggled to exit the car at the end of the race.
The 37-year-old called the Baku race the most physically demanding of his career, but afterwards Horner said that drivers complaining about porpoising were merely ‘b*tching’ because Red Bull are suffering less than others and have the fastest car as things stand. But Russell took objection to Horner’s comments, explaining that drivers are concerned about health and safety rather than competitiveness.
‘No one is saying this to try and gain any advantage,’ Russell explained on Sky Sports F1. ‘You’ve got the Ferrari drivers, and even Max [Verstappen] saying how tough it is.
‘You’ve either got porpoising and the car is hitting the ground or you have to run the car millimetres, perhaps one centimetre, above the ground and you’re smashing the bumps. So whichever way you’ve got it, it’s not great for anyone. Something will happen. There’s no doubt about it.
‘But I don’t know what the solution is, to be honest. At the end of the day, the majority of us are in the same boat.’
24-year-old Russell, who serves as director of the drivers’ union the Grand Prix Drivers Association, said the physical impact of porpoising has already worsened since the beginning of the season.
‘It does feel worse,’ added Russell. ‘At the start of the season we had this porpoising and it was a slower, sort of wavey effect. Since Barcelona, we’ve got a different kind of issue. They’re not straightforward these cars, no doubt.
‘I was pretty pleased to see the race come to a close because I was smashing the ground every single corner, every single lap out there for an hour and a half [and it was] pretty brutal. It’s what we’ve got to deal with and live with at the moment, and we as drivers have to expect.
‘There are not going to be any short-term changes but there are conversations ongoing about what the long-term future of these regulations hold. Let’s see. We’ve got a lot of brilliant engineers and intelligent people in the sport and I’m sure they’ll find a solution.’
The ninth round of the 2022 F1 season will take place this weekend in Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix.
‘S**t happens’ – Max Verstappen feels little sympathy for title rival Charles Leclerc
‘You’re just praying for it to end’ – Lewis Hamilton suffers back pain after Azerbaijan GP
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