“Unfair to Penalize”: Red Bull Boss Shrugs off Rivals’ Protests To Rampant F1 Problem

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner believes it is unfair to punish teams who have a great job to negate the porpoising effect. In Baku, the biggest talking point was the porpoising effect due to the new 2022 cars. And with several drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo being in visible pain after the race caused everyone to be divided on the issue.

Christian Horner weighs in on the porpoising debate

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix showed how bad the effects of porpoising can get. While on-street circuits, such as Jeddah and Australia, didn’t cause any issues because of how smooth the track was, Baku certainly did with the bumps. With concerns going into the race for Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton, many were of the opinion that teams must do something to eliminate the porpoising. 

On the other hand, for Red Bull, the effect is less pronounced. The RB18, when compared to other cars on the grid, doesn’t seem to be getting affected by the same issue.

“You have a choice where you run your car, don’t you?” Christian Horner asked. “You should never run a car that’s unsafe. But I think that’s more for the technical guys. Because certain cars have issues. And there are some cars that have very few issues.”  

“So it would seem unfair to penalize the ones that have done a decent job, versus the ones that have perhaps missed the target slightly.”

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According to the Red Bull boss, the FIA should intervene only if the issue was genuine. Given that a few teams have been able to eliminate the issue and it would be unfair to change the rules.

In Baku, the Red Bulls scored a dominant 1-2 finish and, as a result, now lead Ferrari in the constructor’s championship by eighty points.“There are remedies to [porpoising] but it is to the detriment of car performance,” said Horner. 

Horner finds support from former Formula 1 driver

While many disagreed with Christian Horner, former F1 driver turned pundit Martin Brundle has sided with Horner. Brundle believes that Mercedes must unlock an excellent car and not wait for a rule change to resolve the issue. 

“The teams that have got it sorted are clearly saying that’s Mercedes’ problem and it’s not Formula 1’s problem,” Brundle was quoted by Sky Sports News. “Of course, [Mercedes] can fix it by raising the car but then they lose a huge amount of performance.”

Brundle agrees with Christian Horner on the fact that it’s a team problem and not an issue for the regulations. Martin also mentioned that in Les Mans, the cars also suffered from porpoising. 

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The commentator concluded that while he didn’t underplay what Lewis and George were going through, he sees very little hope of a rule change now.