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FIA vows to ‘reduce or eliminate’ porpoising on the advice of its medical team

A number of drivers have expressed concerns about back problems with some cars experiencing exaggerated bouncing.

FORMULA ONE’S REGULATOR has vowed to “reduce or eliminate” porpoising on the advice of its medical team – just days after Lewis Hamilton suffered with severe back pain in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Hamilton, 37, required assistance to get out of his Mercedes after his car bounced up and down at high speed throughout Sunday’s 51-lap race.

Mercedes ran their machines close to the ground in Baku to produce lower downforce.

But the move exaggerated the bouncing, and under the FIA’s new technical directive, Mercedes might be required to raise the ride height of their cars which could further slow them down.

A statement from F1’s governing body, released ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, read: “The FIA, as the governing body of the sport, has decided that, in the interests of safety, it is necessary to intervene to require that the teams make the necessary adjustments to reduce or to eliminate this phenomenon [of porpoising].

“The FIA has decided to intervene following consultation with its doctors in the interests of safety of the drivers.

In a sport where the competitors are routinely driving at speeds in excess of 300km/h (186 mph), it is considered that all of a driver’s concentration needs to be focused on that task and that excessive fatigue or pain experienced by a driver could have significant consequences should it result in a loss of concentration.

“In addition, the FIA has concerns in relation to the immediate physical impact on the health of the drivers, a number of whom have reported back pain following recent events.”

Seven-time world champion Hamilton has received acupuncture and cryotherapy, a freezing chamber treatment, in order to combat his back problems. A number of other drivers – including Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo, have expressed their concerns.

The statement continued: “A Technical Directive has been issued to give guidance to the teams about the measures the FIA intends to take to tackle the problem.

“These include closer scrutiny of the planks and skids, both in terms of their design and the observed wear, and the definition of a metric, based on the car’s vertical acceleration, that will give a quantitative limit for acceptable level of vertical oscillations.

“The exact mathematical formula for this metric is still being analysed by the FIA, and the Formula One teams have been invited to contribute to this process.” 

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    Mute Darren
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    Jun 16th 2022, 8:27 PM

    So Mercedes, who’ve known about this issue since Barcelona, ran even more downforce than the previous weekends during Baku, left one of their drivers half crippled after the race, and now the FIA have fallen for their bluff? Seems crazy that given how far we’ve come safety wise (hopefully we never see a fatality after a crash again) the Merc lads haven’t come under more scrutiny for potentially causing serious long term injuries for their drivers. The whole thing seems very harsh on RedBull, Alpine, Alpha Tauri etc. who don’t have this issue at all.

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    Mute Thomas Feehily
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    Jun 16th 2022, 8:41 PM

    @Darren: I think this is bad for mercedes. They will have to raise the ride height to reduce porpoising, which will make them slower. I think mercedes wanted a ruling that raised the ride height of all cars which would of being unfair.

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    Mute Darren
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    Jun 16th 2022, 9:02 PM

    @Thomas Feehily: God I hope that’s the case and the FIA force the teams to act individually on this matter. I’ll hold my breath until that happens though

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    Mute Jayme Mc Goldrick
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    Jun 16th 2022, 10:36 PM

    @Thomas Feehily: this is what they have implemented. A maximum number of oscillations in order to protect the drivers. If Mercedes, Ferrari and Haas don’t find a solution engineering wise for porpoising they will need to change car set up to reduce it making them much, much slower.

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    Mute Andrew Keane
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    Jun 17th 2022, 12:32 AM

    @Darren: why is it harsh on teams that have zero porpoising issues? They won’t have to make any changes to their cars. That’s advantage them. Mercedes will suffer cause they’ll have to find other ways to make their car faster without compromising their drivers. That may also include some of the other teams.

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