A winter hot topic, porpoising hasn’t been making headlines in F1 in recent weeks. The teams had managed to contain it, and the drivers seemed to get used to it. George Russell even told us in an interview on the sidelines of the Azerbaijan GP that he had less pain related to this phenomenon.
But the first two days of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix have raised significant fears about this. The cars pushed hard in a straight line, and the drivers complained about the physical effect, but also the loss of control. President of the pilots’ association (GPDA), Russell also has a strong voice on this subject, and he fears a big accident to come.
“It’s just a matter of time before a major accident happens, many of us can barely keep the car straight over these bumps” Russell said. “We take the last corners at 320 km/h, we scrub with the floor, you can see on the tarmac how close the cars are to the ground.
“Formula 2 is in the same position, they have a similar philosophy. But it’s pointless with the technologies we have, it seems unnecessary that we run an F1 car a few millimeters off the ground, and that’s the recipe for disaster.”
Russell squarely questions the long-term viability of these cars, with teams struggling to fix the problem: “I don’t know what the future holds, but I don’t think we can sustain this for three years, or however long this regulation lasts.”
His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, also fears that it could one day create a serious accident. The seven-time world champion admits it’s hard to “Keep that thing away from the wall in fast corners. It can become a safety issue.”
“Today it bottoms out a lot in the corners where you go at 300 km/h, and there’s not much you can do to prevent it. We won’t be able to have that for four years with this car, so I think they have to work on it for the future. All the drivers have talked about it.”
Alpine F1 drivers agree with Mercedes drivers opinion
Russell and Hamilton aren’t the only ones complaining about porpoising and discomfort in these cars. Fernando Alonso does not appreciate the cars’ lack of stability and smoothness, and attributes the intensity of the phenomenon to the Azeri circuit.
“It’s the worst I’ve driven in 20 years. I think it’s a set with this circuit, which was already very bumpy on the straights with the cars, and it’s overdone this year” explained the Spaniard. “In Jeddah it was smooth, in Australia no one was complaining.”
Alonso is worried about the drivers having to ride for many years in these conditions: “It will be difficult for the teams [de changer cela]. But I hope they will do something for the young riders. For me, it will be a few years.”
Esteban Ocon, Alonso’s teammate at Alpine F1, agrees with the general opinion. The Frenchman is aware that his A522 “is not among the worst” single-seaters on the grid, but ensures that it is “still a disaster to drive on a bumpy circuit.”
“It’s not even that bumpy, when you go to Montreal or Singapore it’s going to hurt. We should try to make the cars a bit more fun to drive, because here we have to avoid bumps and you can see the car pulling to one side, and all that on the straight, so it’s on the limit.”