Sainz Imola crash gives Mercedes clues on floor improvement. Since the introduction of the new 2022 regulations, 1 team in particular has failed miserably with their car design. Mercedes AMG F1. The violent ‘porpoising’ demonstrated by the drivers’ helmets being flung around the cockpit, has made the car ‘undrivable’ according to Toto Wolff.
“The fundamental issue that, in a way, overshadows everything, is that our car is porpoising more than others. Because of the bouncing, we are not able to run it where it should run, and that has huge ramifications on the set-up, on the tyre grip, etc, etc, etc. So one is interlinked to the other. I think if we get on top of the porpoising we would unlock much more in terms of performance on the car,” said the Austrian team boss.
This seems to affect the ageing Lewis Hamilton more than his new team mate George Russell. It may be that for the younger of the two Mercedes drivers this is less of a problem due to strength and years driving a poorly balanced Williams F1 car.
Carlos Sainz crash on lap 1 in Imola may have helped Mercedes understand some of the fundamental flaws in their car design.
As is the case when a new season begins, F1 teams are looking at the other’s car to see how they have interpreted the new regulations, and Ferrari and Red Bull are clearly leading the way in this.
That said, the Ferrari car does porpoise a lot down the straight, the it becomes extremely stable under braking.
Having been the team to copy for years, maybe Mercedes can spot a trick or two from the pictures taken of Carlos Sainz stricken Ferrari being loaded onto the recovery truck.
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Are these columns written by x news of the world ‘journalists’? Seems to have all the style.