The bouncing and dolphining of Formula 1 cars is a permanent phenomenon in the 2022 rules system, which places great emphasis on the suction effect, and after some teams and several competitors spoke out about the health risks of this, the International Automobile Association committed itself to solving the problem. Already from the French Grand Prix they will define a certain metric that the teams must adhere to when calibrating the ground clearance, but the FIA is not satisfied with that, starting next season, they are preparing to modify the aerodynamic rules in order to completely banish bouncingand for this a teams they ask for the help of computer simulations.
“We continue to aim to implement changes by 2023 that will reduce the car’s susceptibility to aerodynamic oscillation,” Motorsport quotes Nikolas Tombazis, head of the FIA’s single-seater division, as saying. “We will soon ask the teams to support the research work aimed at this by running different versions of their car in CFD and reporting their results to the FIA.”
Mercedes, which is most affected by bouncing, would not mind the rule change so much, on the other hand, more and more of the rival teams are dissatisfied with what they believe to be excessive measures taken by the FIA. The strongest speaker this time was Red Bull manager Christian Horner, who said that not only the cost limit, but also logic would dictate if the sport allowed the stables to naturally find a solution to filter out this unpleasant behavior of the cars.
“I think it’s too late to introduce changes for next year. It has its way,” Horner said. “And then we didn’t even talk about the cost. Sometimes there are unintended consequences of such philosophy changes, which affect what elements we can keep for the next year, that is, they disrupt both planning and development.”
“And most importantly: the main element of achieving budgetary stability is stability itself. And the cars will converge over time, you can already see that some are starting to resemble each other more and more, and the process will continue in the next six to nine months.”
“So the bottom line is that don’t mess with the rules. Just leave them alone and the teams will figure it out for themselves.”
While it is Alpinefrom Otmar Szafnaur, from Alfa Romeo Frederic Vasseur, a Haas and for his part, Günther Steiner also warned against introducing technical rule changes for the following year at such an advanced stage of the season due to the costs and the already underway developments for 2023. Mercedes according to its technical director, Mike Elliott, ensuring safety comes first.
“Racers say that it is uncomfortable and even unsafe to drive cars with strong bouncing. And I think sport needs to respond to that. The difficulty may be that the cars were designed around suction to make overtaking easier. The only question is how is it possible to keep some of the effect of this advantage even if we eliminate the bouncing” – reflected the technical director of Mercedes.
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