Porpoising, Brawn stings: "Team caught by surprise, I'm amazed"

It took just three days of activity on the track in Barcelona to revive Formula 1 on purely technical issues, after a winter spent amidst the endless regulatory controversies for the events in Abu Dhabi. The word that has not been heard since the 1980s, but which has forcefully returned to occupy the center of the debate in the Circus, is ‘porposing’. The hopping of the single-seaters on the straight, when they reach the highest top speeds, has affected several teams in a worrying way and has become evident to all thanks to a video published by F1 that showcases the problems suffered by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

However, the fact of being ‘bouncing’ up and down the cockpit in full straight at over 300 km / h, has understandably raised a few eyebrows for some drivers. The young talent from Mercedes spoke to everyone, George Russell. The Englishman – Lewis Hamilton’s new teammate – is in fact the president of the GPDA, the drivers’ association. His concern is related to safety. “In the race, if you are flat on the straight and it starts to happen, you don’t hold back – had underlined during the Spanish tests Russell – we saw with Charles’s video [Leclerc] how bad it was for them. So I think we all need to find a solution“.

Bumpy road to the top for Charles Leclerc! 🤕# F1 pic.twitter.com/Z6a5e6d3bo

– Formula 1 (@ F1) February 24, 2022

The F1 managing director moved directly to reassure Russell, Ross Brawn. Among the main promoters of the new technical regulation, the former Ferrari ‘strategy wizard’ has announced interventions by the Federation itself if the problem becomes actually dangerous. At the same time, however, Brawn has also teased the teams that have not been able to avoid this phenomenon. “I am amazed that some of them were taken by surprise – the British engineer told the official F1 channel – because I thought they would predict it with their wind tunnel work. On the track, however, it can be seen that some have already been able to manage it. So there are solutions. If it ever becomes a problem [di sicurezza]I’m sure the FIA can find some modifications to the lower part, to reduce the sensitivity “he concluded.