McLaren F1 technical director James Key admits he’s surprised F1 didn’t anticipate the ‘porpassing’ problem that dominated the start of the 2022 season.
The introduction of new technical rules and regulations, including the return of ground effect aerodynamics, has brought back a phenomenon not seen in F1 since the 1980s.
The unevenness of the track intermittently destroyed the ‘seal’ between the underfloor and the ground while driving on the fast straight, causing the car to momentarily lift and lose grip, affecting overall speed and handling.
In the past, active suspension might counteract this effect by dynamically changing the ride height, but the rules no longer allow that.
Mercedes F1 was particularly hard hit, while Red Bull Racing was barely affected. Perhaps that’s partly thanks to the knowledge and experience of Adrian Newey, who was active in F1 during the original Ground Effects era.
F1’s chief technical officer Pat Symonds has admitted there was no porpoise on the radar for 2022, while motorsport director Ross Brawn said the team had foreseen the problem in pre-season wind tunnel testing. He said he was surprised he hadn’t.
James Key says F1 should have anticipated the issue when devising the new regulations, but it is one of two key aspects of the rule change that the teams failed to anticipate. Admit it.
“I think those two weren’t very obvious to us. One was Porpassing, which we all missed,” he said.
“If we were old enough to be in the ’80s and remember the problems we had last time in the ’70s, we would probably be a little wiser.”
“But the reality is that all of us missed what might have been so serious at the beginning of the season.”
“They tended to take longer than expected to resolve.”
While most F1 teams have successfully combated porpassing, the FIA is introducing further changes for 2023 to protect driver health from excessive bouncing.
Another surprise James Key cited in 2022 is how marginalized Tow has become. This assists overtaking by allowing the driver to enter the slipstream of the preceding car and be pulled on the straight.
But new rules to reduce the ‘dirty air’ turbulence caused by leading vehicles have made a big difference in that approach.
“The slipstream was clearly part of overtaking, but we lost it,” said James Key.
“It might have made it a little easier on the windy circuit by making it easier to follow in the corners, but the effect is definitely smaller.”
“Honestly, I don’t know how to fix it and destroy the other one. It’s pretty tricky. I think I lost something for that.”
Not everything went according to plan last season, but James Key appreciates the work F1 and the FIA have done to develop new rules and regulations.
“We definitely had a race that the team might follow on a track that was difficult before,” said James Key. .
“We were able to see more overtaking than we expected, even at circuits that were previously difficult, including the Hungaroring.”
“The drivers all say it’s easier to follow.”
“I would like to commend the FIA for taking this initiative, pioneering much of the early research and actively engaging with the team.”
