Two races to respond: France’s ‘porpoise’ rule takes effect

(Motorsport-Total.com) – The FIA ​​is still waiting to provide a threshold value for the phenomenon of “porpoises”, which has become new this year. Until then, the FIA ​​wants to collect more data on the behavior of the new generation of Formula 1 cars.

Concretely, this means that teams will only be penalized for an offense against hog hunting measures at the next event in France. At Silverstone and Spielberg, teams can take another look and try to respond.

Before the race at Silverstone, the federation informed the teams that their own analysis of the fluctuation data had been completed and that a metric had been identified.

“The update has been sent out to all teams to allow them to do their own analysis over the next two races and understand what changes they may need to make to comply with technical guidelines when it comes into effect at the French Grand Prix,” according to a statement from the FIA.

On the sidelines of the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, the global governing body issued a technical directive for Formula 1 teams announcing their intention to limit the extent of “porpoise hunting” for driver safety reasons.

After the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, the drivers were increasingly critical. Lewis Hamilton, for example, clearly suffered after the race with back pain From his Mercedes. Pierre Gasly, pilot of the AlphaTauri, said he was betting His health is “at risk of performance”.

It is said that the aerodynamic oscilloscope helps

As a countermeasure, the FIA ​​plans to introduce the aerodynamic oscilloscope (AOM) as part of a new technical directive. This should later determine the maximum limit for “porpoises”. If the team exceeds the specified limit, countermeasures should be taken by raising the height of the vehicle.

If the car jumps a lot and the team in question refuses to meet the necessary requirements, then in the worst case there is a risk of disqualification from the Grand Prix. The car can be classified as “dangerous construction”.

In addition, the FIA ​​does not allow a second strut to strengthen the lower part of the chassis to be installed in the regulations. This was one aspect of Montreal’s technical guidance that caused such a stir in the Formula 1 circuit.

‘Porpoising’: Does the FIA ​​really need to step in?

Instead, there are no additional provisions to help teams eliminate “hog hunting” issues. Not all racing teams felt that the FIA ​​needed to step in and deal with the ‘porpoise’ problem.

For example, Xevi Pujolar, Head of Trackside Engineering at Alfa Romeo Team, said: “If we wanted to, we could also bounce. But we chose not to. Not only for reasons of driver comfort, but also, not to damage the car. I don’t see any impact on our performance. “.