F1 fans were introduced to the term ‘porpoising’ for the first time in 2022, and it was something that we witnessed for the majority of the season. The term is used to describe the ferocious bouncing of a car when it is going flat out, and Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes suffered the most from it.
Since pre-season testing in 2022 started, Hamilton complained about this issue, but it wasn’t until the Azerbaijan GP did the FIA actually take action against this. At Baku last year, Hamilton’s W13 bounced so much that it took a physical toll on him post-race. The 37-year-old struggled to get out of the car due to severe neck and back pain. His teammate George Russell too suffered similar problems.
After the race in Baku, the FIA launched an investigation into how the porpoising in cars can be reduced, and made it compulsory for all teams to adapt to the new regulation changes that would prevent similar injuries. However, F1’s Chief Technical Officer Pat Symonds insists that the FIA overreacted.
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Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes complained about something they tried & didn’t work out
According to Symonds, Mercedes’ woes in Baku were down to their own errors and no one else’s. He feels that the Silver Arrows tried some new things out which didn’t work, and resulted in an afternoon full of porpoising. Despite knowing that, they went public and criticized the regulation changes of 2022 for leading to these problems.
“In Baku, we saw the worst impact,” Symonds said. “Because a team tried something that didn’t work. And then went public quite loudly.”
⚠️ | The FIA “overreacted a bit” to porpoising last year, says Pat Symonds – F1’s Chief Technical Officer.
“In Baku, we saw the worst impact because a team tried something that didn’t work and then went public quite loudly.”
— formularacers (@formularacers_) January 4, 2023
As the season progressed, the porpoising problems gradually went away. All the teams worked hard towards reducing the bouncing, and with the FIA’s intervention, they were able to do so.
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Mercedes label 2022 season as ‘complete disaster’
The 2022 season was an incredibly underwhelming year for Mercedes. They had the best car on the grid for eight seasons straight, but they finally showed weaknesses in 2022, as Red Bull and Ferrari overtook them in terms of performance.
The Silver Arrows struggled a lot to match Red Bull, but caught up to Ferrari in the latter stages of the campaign. Unfortunately, it was too late for them as despite their best efforts, they ended up in P3. Now that the 2022 season is over, their focus is on bouncing back in 2023, but they remain very skeptical about it, considering how bad last year went for them.
W14’s first words! 🤩
Firing up our 2023 @F1 car… pic.twitter.com/6delOaaE4H
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) December 22, 2022
“I think we’ve got to maintain that skepticism,” Mercedes’ technical director Mike Elliot said in the team’s season review . “And be honest with ourselves that we were behind at the end of the year.
