Formula 1 teams reject change in rules to eliminate physical impact and risks

• Russell is rumored to have directly talked to FIA in regards to the matter.
• The issue can be eliminated by boosting the car’s height: McLaren’s boss.
• It is necessary to investigate the cause of accidents: Mercedes boss

In the Formula 1 drivers’ briefing for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the escalating annoyance about the physical impact and risks of the continued bouncing became a major topic of conversation.

Director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) George Russell is rumored to have urged the FIA directly to investigate the subject, as he is now openly concerned about the safety implications of being violently rattled at high speeds.

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“Well I think it’s just a matter of time before we see a major incident,” said the Briton. “A lot of us kind of can barely keep the car in a straight line over these bumps.”

Despite the fact that many drivers share Russell’s concerns, not all teams believe that significant action is required in the near future, given that not all competitors are affected by the issue.

During conversations concerning the development of the 2022 cars last year, it has come to light that a proposal was made to address concerns about the risk of porpoising.

As it became evident how low teams would have to run the 2022 car generation, it is believed that the idea of inserting anything to eliminate the risk of bouncing was considered.

The idea, which was believed to contain a number of technical steps that would have essentially imposed a minimum ride height to prevent cars from porpoising, lacked the requisite support and was therefore discarded.

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Despite the fact that teams did not see the necessity for something like this at the time, the growing worries of drivers are likely to at least put the matter back into the FIA’s focus.

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl concurred that the ‘brutality’ of the porpoising warranted a discussion between teams and the FIA.

However, he also emphasized that any team may immediately eliminate the issue by boosting the ride height of their car, albeit at the expense of performance.

“We understand that the severity we see in some cars is brutal on the drivers, and that’s why it is a fair point to bring forward to the Technical Advisory Committee, to see if it makes sense to address it,” said Seidl.

“But at the same time, right now, a team knows how to stop it immediately.”

Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal and Russell’s boss, stated that the current scenario was not simple and that it was crucial to determine why some vehicles were suffering more than others.

Mattia Binotto, the principal of the Ferrari team, did not believe that the current cars were particularly difficult to drive and stated that more time was required to assess the situation.

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“I think we’ve seen cars that don’t have the issue and then others who have it have it worse, clearly,” he said.

“I can talk for our two drivers: they are having issues and it goes to a point that even a physio can’t fix it sometimes. So, we need to see how that develops. And understand also why it’s much tougher in some cars than in others.”