British motor racing engineer Pat Symonds, who is currently the Chief Technical Officer of Formula 1, admitted that changes made in 2022 to combat the porpoising aerodynamic phenomenon midway during last season were in fact an overreaction from the FIA.
The bouncing effect returned to Formula 1 after the sport introduced its new ground-effect-focused technical rules and regulations in the start of the 2022 Formula 1 championship, one year later than initially scheduled. Despite the fact that some teams were able to limit or deal with the porpoising issues, such as Ferrari, Alpine or Alfa Romeo, other sides – mainly Mercedes – were affected by bouncing a lot more, especially on certain race tracks.
One key moment came at the Baku City Circuit in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. At the end of the race weekend, a few drivers wanted to raise safety concerns during the weekend.
French racing driver Pierre Gasly felt that by continuing in this direction he would need a walking cane in his 30s, due to the violence and effects of the oscillations, while Lewis Hamilton needed assistance to get out of his W13 car after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
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The FIA was quick to make some changes with the goal of reducing porpoising: a technical directive was introduced starting from the race Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, but now F1 Chief Technical Officer Pat Symonds admitted that “I think they overreacted a bit after Baku. In Baku, we saw the worst effects because a team tried something that didn’t work and then went public quite loudly. If they hadn’t intervened, the problems would have been solved. Most teams now understand how to control the bouncing.” – the former Williams man said in a recent interview for the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport.
Other rule changes will be introduced starting with the 2023 Formula 1 championship to make sure that the porpoising aerodynamic phenomenon no longer represents an issue for drivers.
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