"It gets a bit tricky" - Former Mercedes driver on vision issues due to porpoising
Former Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has shared his thoughts on the visibility issues F1 drivers are having to deal with as a result of the porpoisining of the new 2022 cars.
Porpoising is a phenomenon that causes F1 cars to violently bounce up and down on their rear suspensions at near top speeds – akin to the motion that porpoises make when swimming through the ocean. Watch:
Bumpy road to the top for Charles Leclerc! 🤕
#F1 https://t.co/Z6a5e6d3bo
Now at Alfa Romeo, Bottas spoke about how the bouncing could impact the vision of drivers on the F1 grid. The Finn said:
“I would say it affects a bit of everything. It is not very comfortable if it happens. Visually it gets a bit tricky and obviously, you lose overall load because the level of the downforce goes up and down and it can affect the braking as well. One concern, obviously, if you carry on like that is the reliability of certain parts in the car so I think that is quite a new thing for every team to learn and how to deal with that and optimize the set-up to avoid it. I would say it has been a bit of a challenge for everyone.”
Valtteri Bottas had previously dismissed porpoising concerns raised by Mercedes' George Russell
Earlier, Valtteri Bottas had dismissed safety concerns regarding porpoising raised by Mercedes' current driver George Russell.
Russell replaced the 32-year-old in the Brackley-based squad. He will be driving alongside fellow compatriot Lewis Hamilton going into the new F1 2022 season.
After the 24-year-old Briton claimed porpoising “has the potential to be a real safety concern”, Bottas said:
“For now I don’t think it’s a safety issue. 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. And if you find a way to have a good ride in the car, being able to run it low, you might gain some performance. But obviously in some places [that comes] with a cost of the ride itself, especially in high speeds and over the bumps.”
While Ferrari claims to have a fix for its porpoising issue, most teams are still struggling with the phenomenon. Teams will need to address this during the next pre-season testing session in Bahrain, scheduled for March 10.