We are just 2 days into the pre-season testing in Barcelona and the drivers are already reporting a problem. The fresh problem that the teams and drivers are facing currently while driving the 2022 cars is called porpoising. Mercedes driver George Russell reported he did not face this problem to the extreme as compared to some other drivers.

Because of the new regulations in the sport, the downforce of the cars has to be generated from the ground effects rather than the aerodynamical wings.

Since the cars are so close to the ground while generating the downforce, during the straights they just get too close to the ground that it sucks the downforce and causes the cars to bounce.

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George Russell gives his take on porpoising in the 2022 cars

As reported by Motorsport, the phenomenon is quite common when the cars generate downforce from the ground effects. The Mercedes driver mentioned it could be a safety concern going forwards.

“I think you can see some quite substantial issues with the cars in the straights with the bottoming. So this is a compromise we need to find to go quickest around the lap. It’s something I don’t think any team has experienced before. We’re seeing some interesting things out there,” said Russell.

But Russell is confident that the engineers and mechanics can tackle the problem and provide a solution. “From what I’ve seen of other teams, in particular, it would be a safety concern, so that does need to be sorted one way or another.”

“But there’s a lot of intelligent people up and down this grid, and I’m sure everyone will get on top of it sooner than later,” said the Mercedes driver.

While there are some teams that mentioned that they expected this problem but they did not analyze the extent of it. Hopefully, the problem of porpoising does not turn into a safety concern for the season.

But it is certainly interesting that despite having amazing technology, they did not come prepared for this. Hopefully, they will find a solution before the official Pre-season test in Bahrain.

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