Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc explained that the porpoising felt by Formula 1 drivers in the first pre-season testing session at the Circuit de Catalunya can be compared with turbulence on a flight, and made him feel “a little bit ill”.
Most of the drivers experienced the effect on the Spanish corcuit’s main straight to a greater or lesser degree and a lot of focus centred on the Monegasque driver after a video clip was posted by the official Formula 1 account, showing his F1-75 car encountering very high levels of porpoising.
The following days, teams were able to reduce the levels with several aero adjustments but it is expected to be a regular issue in 2022, especially in the first part of the championship, as engineers learn how to manage it without losing lap time:
“It feels like turbulence on an aeroplane, going up and down the whole straight. I think one of the videos that F1 posted shows this phenomenon quite well, and I can’t say it feels nice. It makes you a little bit ill, but it’s okay. It’s still very early days for this project. So it feels like it’s an issue that everyone has in the paddock more or less but yeah, in this paddock all the best engineers of the world are here so I’m pretty sure that we’ll find a solution.” – Charles Leclerc explained.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection from Puma!
Many paddock insiders felt that the Maranello team had the most competitive overall package at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. However, Charles Leclerc was cautious about the F1-75’s true performance and potential, while confirming that Ferrari is pleased with the data gathered in the first test:
“We have done many laps, no major issues which is always great considering it’s a completely new project,” he said. “So this is good. We’ve tested a lot of new things. Then in terms of performance it’s impossible to know where we are compared to the others, it’s still very early days, everyone is hiding a little bit their performance, and we’ll only know I think at the first qualifying of the year where’s the potential of everyone. But for now it’s been a smooth three days for us, which is always positive to start like this. And the pre-season preparation has gone great, I feel fitter than ever. Every year I try to push the bar a bit higher, and I feel good and I felt good during this testing in the car.” – he added.
Regarding the atmosphere in the Italian side, he continued: “We are quite happy that things have gone smoothly. On the other hand, I think we are working harder than ever to just try and keep our heads down. Of course, it’s always nice to see yourself P1. But that doesn’t mean anything, and I think everyone is aware of this in the team. So we are not really focusing on the performance at all. We’re just focusing on ourselves, again, try to try as many things as possible to try and understand ways of this car. And then onto Bahrain to try to push the car a bit more there.” – Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc concluded.
Leave a Reply