Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has accused Ferrari and Red Bull of “pitiful” and “disingenuous” behaviour in the debate regarding the effect of cars bouncing on the straights.
Toto Wolff had a bust-up with Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto in a team principals’ meeting on yesterday at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. And afterwards he said the Ferrari and Red Bull bosses were guilty of “manipulations in the background”.
Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto confirmed the cars’ behaviour “needs to be improved… [But] it has to be done through the right process”, while Red Bull did not want to comment on the matter.
The issue comes against the backdrop of a controversial intervention from the FIA on the topic, as a direct result of several drivers complaining about the bouncing at the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan seven days ago. Toto Wolff’s issue was with Christian Horner’s statements that it is wrong to penalise teams which have managed to limit porpoising and with Mattia Binotto making what Mercedes regard as procedural objections to attempts to make changes to the cars on the matter.
Mecredes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have been among the most outspoken on bouncing because their cars have been the most affected by this problem in the first parte of the 2022 Formula 1 season: “This is a sport where you’re trying to keep a competitive advantage or gain it but this situation has gone too far. All drivers – at least one in every team – have said they were in pain after Baku, that they have difficulty keeping the car on track or blurred vision. And team principals trying to manipulate what is being said in order to keep their competitive advantage and trying to play political games when the FIA tries to come up with a quick solution to at least put the cars in a better position is disingenuous and that’s what I said. I’m not only talking about the Mercedes – all of the cars suffered in some way or other in Baku and still do here. The car is too stiff or the car is bouncing, whatever you want to call it. This is a joint problem we are having in F1. It’s a design issue that needs to be solved. We will have long-term effects that we can’t even judge and at any time this is a safety risk. Then coming up with little manipulations in the background or Chinese whispers or briefing a driver is just pitiful.” – Toto Wolff said.
Lewis Hamilton said that he has been taking painkillers this week and repeated sessions of physiotherapy after the Baku race, including acupuncture, due to the back problems the bouncing is causing.
The issue arises from the fact that the new rules and regulation on which the 2022 Formula 1 cars have been designed reintroduced a phenomenon called ‘ground effect’. As a result, teams have to use very stiff suspension and close to the ground in order not to lose pace. But this also leads to a phenomenon known as ‘porpoising’ in which a disruption to the underbody airflow leads to a high-frequency bouncing on the straights.
In addition, the stiff suspension and low ride-height can lead to the cars to bounce over bumps.
George Russell added: “So many different factors, porpoising is one thing that a lot of teams are on top of but the overall stiffness is just immense. It needs to be addressed. There are things that have been taken off the cars from last year to this to make things simpler. But it has had quite a knock-on effect.”
Those comments are a reference to the simplification of suspension systems on cost grounds this year and other technical changes such as removing devices called “inerters” that settle cars.
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Meanwhile, teams did not agree with the way the FIA took actions regarding this matter: it issued a technical directive just a few days ahead of the the Canadian race, which many teams regarded as too-late notice, and with no prior discussion.
At the sane time, many people inside the paddock regarded the plan in the technical directive aimed at addressing the rules as too complex and unpoliceable, basically an idea to evaluate data from the cars to come up with an “aerodynamic oscillation metric” which teams cannot exceed.
There was also criticism of what was perceived as the FIA’s decision to row back on the directive on Friday afternoon in Montreal. The FIA explained that teams had misinterpreted the directive and that it had always said it was intended as the start of an evaluation process aimed at addressing the issue over a period of time.
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