Referring to the health and safety of drivers, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) confirmed on Thursday that it would intervene to reduce “porpoising”, an aerodynamic phenomenon that causes vibrations and violent jolts in Formula 1 single-seaters. .
Posted at 10:32 p.m.
With the return this season to cars designed around the concept of ground effect, the teams are finding it difficult to properly manage the very precise adjustments of the various aerodynamic elements. And that’s especially true for Mercedes, the team that has won the last eight constructors’ championships, whose drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell literally have to fight race after race in their bouncing single-seaters.
Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, had to be helped out of his car last Sunday after finishing fourth in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a race he described as “the most difficult of [s]a career physically”. Suffering from his back, the Briton only confirmed his participation in the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this week.
Several pilots have also deplored the situation and requested rapid intervention from the sporting authorities to correct the situation.
In a press release, the FIA explained: “In a sport where competitors regularly drive at speeds above 300 km/h, it is considered that a driver’s full concentration must be on this task and that fatigue or pain excessive could have significant consequences if it leads to a loss of concentration. In addition, the FIA is concerned about the immediate physical impact on the health of drivers, a number of whom have reported back pain following recent events. »
Photo Olivier Jean, THE PRESS
The “porpoising” provoked words from the back of Lewis Hamilton, who is still in Montreal for the weekend.
More concretely, the FIA has issued a “technical directive” in which it asks the teams to make “the necessary adjustments to reduce or eliminate this phenomenon”. The FIA stewards will examine more specifically the floors and sidepods of single-seaters with the aim of imposing a “unit of measurement, based on the vertical acceleration of the car, which will give a quantitative limit for an acceptable level of oscillations vertical. The exact mathematical formula for this metric is still being analyzed by the FIA, and Formula 1 teams have been asked to contribute to this process”.
The FIA also intends to convene a technical meeting with the teams to define measures intended to reduce the propensity of the cars to produce aerodynamic phenomena such as porpoising.
The subject is obviously at the center of the discussions on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit, where the first tests of the Grand Prix of Canada will take place this Friday. Already on Thursday, several pilots reacted positively to the measures announced.
Frenchman Pierre Gasly, from the AlphaTauri team, was delighted to see that the FIA had taken into account the comments of the drivers.
It’s positive to see that they take it the right way, he said. We talk about it among pilots. In the end, it is us who are in the car, who feel the impacts in the back. It is we who are in pain. And I think even from the outside, it doesn’t give an idea of what it’s like to take all these impacts in the back for an hour and a half.
Pierre Gasly
The FIA’s decision is obviously likely to upset teams, such as Red Bull or Ferrari, who have handled the new regulations better, but Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack said: “It has become a matter of safety and we can only support the FIA in everything it does to correct the situation, regardless of the possible advantages to one team or another. Porpoising is a complex phenomenon with physical and also subjective limits.
“We know what happens in terms of aerodynamics and physics, but we also have to assess what it is possible to endure physically for the pilots. So far, we have never exceeded the limits of our pilots, but it is obvious that we are approaching them, and it is good to intervene while there is still time. »