After the latest generation of F1 cars debuted in 2022, the sport faced a big technical and safety hurdle: porpoising. That being said, Fernando Alonso faced the demon of porpoising 24 years before drivers like Lewis Hamilton came face-to-face with their biggest nightmare.
A video uploaded to Instagram shows the Spaniard in a karting race back in 1998. Alonso can be seen suffering from similar effects of porpoising on the bumpy karting track and the video aptly captured the plight of the then 17-year-old.
View this post on Instagram
Alonso even took to his own Instagram account to share the video. However, it was all in jest as the troubles faced by the drivers in the modern age of Grand Prix racing with these ground-effect cars cannot be compared to Alonso’s treacherous 1998 outing in his go-kart.
Alonso’s Alpine in 2022 was no stranger to porpoising either. For instance, during the British GP last year, the Spaniard could be seen struggling with extreme porpoising as he made his way out of Copse into the complex Maggots and Becketts sequence of corners. While the bane of porpoising has been resolved for many, Hamilton was still on the receiving end of it this year.
Porpoising spooked Lewis Hamilton after W14 resembled the horrors of 2022
After a year-long struggle to eliminate the issue of the car bouncing in high-downforce situations, the Mercedes team had thought that they had found their solutions with the W14. However, the same phenomenon was prevalent in the W14, albeit for a brief stint.
During the 2023 Belgian GP weekend, Hamilton told Sky Sports F1, “We had big bouncing this weekend, so we’re back to the bouncing like we had last year.” It was a massive blow for the Briton as it signaled that their revamped concept still suffered from the gremlins of 2022.
Mercedes’ porpoising issues returned at Spa and Lewis Hamilton has confirmed the team is not exactly sure why
He’s hoping improvements can be made during the summer break #Hamilton #Mercedes #BelgianGP #F1 #Formula1 pic.twitter.com/nt75RpsOpi
— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) July 30, 2023
In its aftermath, Hamilton acknowledged the team needed to find answers soon. “I think we’ll work through the data this week. And then try and figure out what we do for the next race. I know what I want, I’m praying for it and just waiting for the day we get it,” he added.
While the Silver Arrows seemed to have eliminated porpoising completely in the second-half of the season, the team still has a long way to go before it can challenge its rivals and topple Red Bull at the top of the standings next year.
