F1 News: Chief Technical Officer Blasts FIA And Mercedes For Handling Of Porpoising Issues In 2022
Formula 1 chief technical officer (CTO), Pat Symonds, has spoken about the porpoising problems we saw throughout the 2022 season, explaining that the issues had already been highlighted as a potential issue when the rule changes came in. Symonds also blasted Mercedes for complaining so much about the problems that left Lewis Hamilton with back problems.
Symonds explained during an interview with Auto Motor Und Sport that Red Bull's aerodynamicist, Adrian Newey, had highlighted the porpoising issues earlier on but the F1 CTO admitted the issues were not accounted for.
Mercedes struggled with the porpoising issues from the first race in Bahrain and once they have eventually got the porpoising under control later in the season, it was apparent that they had been covering up a multitude of other problems with the car.
The British motor racing engineer was the CTO for Williams from 2013 to 2016 and also worked for Benetton, Renault, and Virgin Formula One teams, before becoming the chief technical officer for Formula One in 2017.
Symonds explained in the interview:
"There is no doubt that the bouncing has changed things."
The CTO went on to explain that he disagreed with the way the FIA handled the situation with Mercedes. Team principal, Toto Wolff, along with the Mercedes garage, had been complaining of the many porpoising issues they were experiencing. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton had to crawl out of his car after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix so Wolff used medical reports after this to push for changes to be made. Symonds continued:
"I think they overreacted a bit after Baku. In Baku, we saw the worst repercussions because a team tried something that didn't work and then went public quite vociferously. If they hadn't intervened, the problems would have been solved. Most teams now understand how to control bouncing."