Formula 1 is a dangerous sport, no doubt. However, that cannot become an excuse for putting the lives of drivers at risk. The sport has taken many strides with respect to driver safety. Be that as it may, last year, another serious health concern reared its ugly head in the form of porpoising. In terms of car performance, this aerodynamic phenomenon has caused much pain to the teams. It has also adversely affected driver health and safety as per Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.

Netflix’s Drive to Survive series gave us an inside eye into Wolff’s explosive fight against porpoising. However, his concerns aren’t all that isolated. In the past, we’ve seen the example of the NFL being scrutinized for the massive concussions the players were suffering. The sport had had a long history of neglecting this, and it prompted many prominent personalities to speak up against it.

One such example would be Tom Brady‘s ex-wife, Gisele Bundchen.  The New York Post quoted her as revealing, “He had a concussion last year. He had pretty much concussions every, I mean we don’t talk about, but he does have concussions. I don’t think it’s a healthy thing for a body to go through that kind of aggression all the time. That can’t be healthy for you.”

For Wolff, he expects the FIA and F1 to take lessons from NFL’s gaffes. He told Motorsport.com, “It is a medical question [porpoising], and it must be answered, and these studies are a reality, they are done. I don’t think the FIA ​​will allow themselves to be manipulated in either direction, the GPDA have released their statements, and the drivers have also released their personal statements anonymously.”

Wolff wouldn’t want to see his star driver, Lewis Hamilton suffer Brady’s fate. “The competent specialists and doctors consulted, and the result is that what we have seen can cause damage to pilots in the long run. And the FIA ​​says they don’t want a situation similar to what we’ve seen in the NFL.”

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Hamilton has already spoken about the ill-effects of this phenomenon. But has the FIA done enough?

Has the FIA eliminated porpoising?

At the Belgian Grand Prix, last year, the FIA released a new technical directive that would put the skid blocks and wooden plank underneath a car on their hit list. If it took too much of a hit, then the teams would be penalized. This essentially forced the teams to run a higher ride height which eliminated the problem but at the cost of a performance delta loss.

And teams seemed happy with this. Ferrari chief Laurent Mekies told Formula1.com, “The TD is effectively putting more pressure on the teams to operate their car far away from the porpoising. It is also putting more emphasis on checking legality for plank wear. All of these things, all of these tools that the FIA has and is doing a good job at it to make sure that we don’t play too close to the boundaries.”

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Is porpoising a thing of the past? Or does the FIA need to re-look into their rule book to make a few amends?