F1 teams struggling to find a 'porpoise' in life
As fast as the Mercedes W13 can go on a Formula One race circuit, it still can’t escape the porpoise that has been chasing it all year.
The whole field continues to deal with “porpoising” – the rapid bouncing of the car caused by the newly implemented ground effects – but leaders Ferrari and Red Bull appear to have done a much better job finding a handle on the issue.
Heading into the fourth event Sunday at Imola, Mercedes’ quest for a ninth consecutive constructors’ championship looks to already be in serious jeopardy.
The bouncing was so intense during Friday’s first practice as to cause the floor of George Russell’s car to break, and has been forcing both Mercedes drivers to reduce their speed entering the straights.
A clearly frustrated Lewis Hamilton said following the sprint that they are “not fighting for the championship” but only focused on trying to understand the car.
There was a bit of optimism after Saturday’s practice when Russell was able to post the fastest lap of the entire field for the session, but it failed to translate to results in the sprint qualifying.
Starting in the back half of the grid, the only passes the Mercs could make involved each driver going by one of the Aston Martin cars, engine customers of Mercedes who also have had major porpoising issues.
Mercedes no doubt will be doing everything possible to try and find a solution before the season gets too old, but operating within the F1 budget cap, that means reduced attention to other areas. Right now, it's starting to look like they may have to accept this as a lost season and focus on their possibilities and changes for 2023.
Sorry, but we couldn't help ourselves with the following tweet -- it shows porpoising in a whole other light!
Verstappen on pole – and also starting first
F1s new rules say Max Verstappen, the winner of Friday’s qualifying, is officially “on pole”, although Saturday’s sprint race (sorry, make that “sprint qualifying”) determined the starting position for all cars in the Grand Prix.
While Formula One has been hard at work codifying its official wording, series officials may wish to consider looking at the rules regarding drivers who cause red flags during qualifying.
With only enough time for one attempt per driver remaining in Q3, Lando Norris spun off the track, effectively ending the session. That ended up working out just fine for the McLaren driver, who finished qualifying in third place. Q2 had been similarly ended by Carlos Sainz, allowing the Ferrari to move on, although the car was too damaged to actually compete in the final session.
Twenty-one laps of excitement on Saturday
The regulation changes that were designed to allow cars to remain closer when chasing an opponent continue to be a success, as Saturday’s sprint was filled with battles throughout the field.
Verstappen’s overtake of Charles Leclerc to capture the win adds to the evidence that the Red Bull driver will be difficult to beat in any race this year in which he’s not stopped by mechanical trouble.
Valtteri Bottas slipped from eighth to 10th at the start of the sprint, but was able to fight back to finish seventh. Bottas’ surprising success for Alfa Romeo has been mostly under the radar this year, as the Finn seems capable of competing with any of the cars outside the top two teams.
Bottas’ teammate, Zhou Guanyu, crashed on Lap 1 following contact with Pierre Gasly and will start the Grand Prix in the back row.