After two consecutive years of disappointment, Mercedes fans can perhaps finally hope for a better car in 2024. James Allison, the technical director of the Silver Arrows, revealed in a recent interview that although the W15 is likely to be faster than its predecessor, there is still a concern that is likely to affect Lewis Hamilton even this year. Allison has revealed that porpoising is likely to continue in the W15, a problem that resulted in Hamilton suffering from severe back pain over the previous two campaigns.
Although porpoising was a concern throughout the course of the 2022 season, Mercedes did seem to get rid of it at one point last year. However, with Mercedes having laid too much emphasis on improving the performance of the W15, they may have not given too much importance to rectifying the porpoising issue, which is all set to return this season, as per Allison.
The Mercedes technical director told Sky Sports, as per deni on X, “I think the bouncing is still a thing that’s gonna be a threshold that all the cars will work up against until this generation of cars moves on to something different so there’s still some bouncing… in pursuit of what the right performance compromise is.”
The Silver Arrows performed fairly well during the three days of testing in Bahrain. Even though they did not impress the fans and experts much, there’s still a ray of hope for improvement on their part. Moreover, it is pertinent to note that Mercedes also never really showed its true speed as they mainly focused on the long runs.
However, with the increased focus on improving performance, porpoising has returned. The same was clearly visible on the straights during testing in Bahrain.
Lewis Hamilton only remembers porpoising from the 2022 season
Over the course of the 2022 season, Lewis Hamilton made several complaints about the back pain he suffered due to the porpoising of the car. Since 2022 was also the first season when the seven-time champion failed to win a race, the only thing he could recollect from that year was the pain he suffered due to porpoising.
Hamilton explained, “The one I remember is this one (him holding his back). This one is the one I remember the most just because of the pain I was in. That weekend I went lower than you (George Russell) on the rear. Ride height was much lower. It was much worse on my car. But painful for both of us I think.”
Since Mercedes expect porpoising to return on the W15, Hamilton will need to be careful during the season opener in Bahrain. The circuit of Bahrain is bumpy, something that could worsen the effects of porpoising.
