Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admits he’s concerned about F1 drivers suffering from brain damage due to porpoising.
One of the terms F1 fans were introduced to at the start of the season was porpoising. It basically describes the bouncing of a car, when it’s going at full speed on the straights.
It does not only look uncomfortable, but is a severe problem that teams are dealing with. Porpoising impacts performance, and is also a physical challenge for drivers. We saw Lewis Hamilton hurt his back, after dealing with porpoising around the Baku Street Circuit.
Wolff’s team Mercedes, is one of the teams who have been affected by this the most. In a recent interview, he shed light on his concerns regarding the same, and how it may lead to brain damage for the F1 stars.
He insists that the FIA must do something about it, in order to prevent any lasting damage.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff wants FIA to act on making F1 safer
The FIA are working towards making alteration to the current regulations, that would reduce the porpoising seen on cars. One of the changes proposed is to raise the height of the car by 25mm from 2023 onwards.
Some teams do not like this, and feel it would be an expensive alteration of their already costly car designs. Mercedes meanwhile, are firmly behind FIA President Mohammed bin Sulayem in making this change.
“There’s all this talk of lobbying in either direction,” Toto Wolff said. “But I think fundamentally, what are we talking about?”
“The FIA has commissioned medical work on the porpoising. The summary of the doctors is that frequency of 1-2Hz, sustained over a few minutes, can lead to brain damage. We have 6-7Hz over several hours. So the answer is very easy, FIA needs to do something about it.”
Despite Wolff’s push, some teams including Ferrari don’t welcome this alteration. They feel that the FIA should focus on improving other immediate aspects of the car, rather than focusing on preventing porpoising.
