Just before the Canadian Grand Prix, the FIA published a Technical Directive indicating among other things that it was going to collect data on the issue of rebounds suffered by Formula 1 cars, in order to prepare concrete measures to combat this phenomenon for reasons of security. Details on how to proceed remain unresolved at this time and much will depend on meetings that have been or will be held between now and the British Grand Prix.
Alpine is among the teams least affected by porpoising or rebounding in general, even though both drivers, Stephen Ocon et Fernando Alonso, pointed out that this is a problem in Baku. On the other hand, things went without too much difficulty in Montreal.
“It’s up to the FIA to help with all safety issues”said Otmar Szafnauer, director of the French structure, following the Canadian GP. “And I’m sure they are looking into it. But there is a process that has to be followed. And I think they will.”
“I didn’t see a lot of porpoising on the track [à Montréal]. We asked our pilots on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst, where you can’t stand the porpoising, and […] 1 being nothing at all. And we were at 2 today, for example. So that was their opinion. Out of 10, we’re down to 2, so I don’t think that was an issue here. But you never know how it might turn out on other tracks.”
Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522
Szafnauer said he would accept action from the FIA for safety reasons, provided other teams did not take advantage of it. “If the FIA determines it’s a safety issue, as long as the playing conditions remain level and some teams don’t use it as a bargaining tactic to gain a competitive advantage, then I’m happy. “
“So we’ll never oppose anything for safety reasons. But like I said, for us here porpoising was 2 out of 10. That’s next to nothing. If it’s a security question, it will be submitted to the CCT [Comité Consultatif Technique], then proposed to the World Motor Sport Council and finally it will be voted on. But I don’t know what will happen with the porpoising. I hope it will be discussed before the CCT.”
Earlier in the Canada weekend, Szafnauer explained that Alpine had sacrificed a bit of performance to better control the rebound: “It’s a problem for us, but we raise the ride height, we lose downforce and we get to a reasonable situation”he told Motorsport.com.
“And I’m sure anyone might do it. I don’t know what other people are doing. But I think they don’t want to give up downforce, so they’re going for a lower ride height, and it causes porpoising. So I think it’s pretty easy.”
