“I don’t think it’s going to be a big concern”– Valtteri Bottas opposes George Russell’s safety issues with new downforce mechanism

Valtteri Bottas counters George Russell’s points of porpoising that, according to him, is a significant safety concern for the drivers.

George Russell appeared for Mercedes for the Barcelona testing ahead of the new F1 season. The Briton, after his run with the all-new W13, talked about his concerns with the downforce.

The new regulations allow teams to sculpt their cars in a way that produces a significant level of downforce. But if the airflow beneath the car stalls, the car will rise up on the suspension and sink back once the downforce returns. The phenomenon is called porpoising.

After his spell at Barcelona, Russell mentioned that the bouncing of his car is a genuine safety concern. But Bottas counters his point by saying team engineers will eventually solve it.

George Russell has set the fastest time at testing this week ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/jirjezSw1x

— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) February 25, 2022

“For now I don’t think it’s a safety issue,” he said. “I think it’s just the way that the aero of the car works. Obviously it’s a fact that the lower you go with the car, the more you have downforce.”

“So it’s quite an interesting new philosophy on the aero side of the car. I don’t think it’s going to be a big concern. As a team, we need to work around it, and we need to make sure that the car is reliable enough for these regulations, and it’s the same case for every team.”

Also read: Bottas explains what sets Lewis Hamilton apart from others on the grid

Alfa Romeo is making significant progress so no worries for Valtteri Bottas

Meanwhile, Bottas’ new teammate Guanyu Zhou claims that Alfa Romeo has already made progress from the problem. The Swiss-based team made the lowest mileage on the track during the three days of testing.

The Chinese race driver claimed that he could observe a significant improvement on the second day of the testing. He further claims that there are still some issues with the car.

He further seconds Bottas’ viewpoint that the teams will have to seek solutions themselves where teams can get enough downforce with minimal bounces on the straights.

Also read: Schumacher contradicts Valtteri Bottas’ claim that George Russell can’t beat Lewis Hamilton in 2022

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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