Mercedes’ George Russell sceptical on ‘sticking plaster’ changes to address porpoising problems

Mercedes’ George Russell described the F1 changes that target the problem of porpoising as ‘more of a sticking plaster’ than the solution.

The FIA has described the problem as ‘dangerous’ and announced some alterations, with concerns over driver health.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has been the most prominent in his complaints but others have noted that the experience of racing is painful as a result of bouncing throughout weekends, and some have worried about the long-term health implications.

Hamilton said: “It is always interesting seeing people’s perspectives and opinions – in front of you [the media] it’s one thing and in the background sometimes people say different things.

“Safety is the most important thing and at least one driver in every team has spoken about it.

“I don’t think it is going to change a huge amount but a lot needs to be done on it. It’s not about coping with the bouncing for the next four years; it’s about fixing it so all of us don’t have back problems moving forward.

“In the drivers’ briefing at the last race pretty much every driver except for Fernando [Alonso] was commenting on it and complaining, even the Red Bull drivers were saying: ‘Yeah this is a problem, we have to work on it.’

“And then they are in front of the media here and they are saying a completely opposite thing.”

Russell said: “The vertical loads are far beyond what you’d expect is safe to deal with,” and said the changes were “more of a sticking plaster.”

Porpoising is the bouncing of the car when airflow underneath leads to rapid movements up and down, with vehicles touching the track.

Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll retired in Baku last weekend as he suffered from the impacts of porpoising, the first time that had happened this season.

He said: “It has been very bad and both porpoising and the stiffness is something the FIA needs to address because it’s not sustainable.”

His teammate Sebastian Vettel added: “It can’t be that us drivers should suffer injury short or long term, or possibly for the rest of our lives, every sport to the extreme is not healthy.

“But it cannot go on for another four or five years like that so it is good the FIA is looking into it.”

Max Verstappen was less enthusiastic, adding: “I don’t think rule changes in the middle of the season are correct, I understand the safety aspect but if you raise your car you will have less issues. Naturally you will find the limit of what you can cope with.

“I don’t think we should over-dramatise it, because we have a lot of smart people who can get rid of these things”.