Toto Wolff and Fia
Toto Wolff and Fia
As we are now halfway through the season, talks about next year’s regulations are at full throttle with team bosses jockeying to influence the new regulations to their favor. Along with that, many teams aka Mercedes is still adamant that the FIA do something about porpoising which unsurprisingly has been opposed by almost every team on the grid.
And as if that wasn’t a big enough problem for the FIA to solve, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has also called out the FIA to get it together as he thinks the governing body is costing drivers race wins and starting positions. So what does the Mercedes team boss have up his sleeve this time? And what did Verstappen have to say to the FIA? Well, let’s talk about it then. But before we get started, consider subscribing to get updated on our latest uploads. Now that’s out of the way, let’s get started.
The FIA arguably has received more scrutiny this year compared to Abu Dhabi last year with teams, drivers, and fans having something to say about the FIA and how they go about their business. As we all know by now, this 2022 season is the first time the teams can use ground effects since the 1980s when it was banned as the cars at the time would lead drivers to lose control of their cars whenever there was a sudden loss of downforce that came when the ground effect failed after had gone over a bump or a rough piece of track.
But with the improvement of aerodynamic knowledge and engineering, the danger has been reduced but still left out unsolvable and rather painful phenomena that engineers and drivers have to deal with which is porpoising. Fans would first get a glimpse of this during the pre-season testing as cars bounced through the straights in Barcelona and the most memorable one in Bahrain where Pierre Gasly looked like he was head banging to metal music before arriving at the next turn.
These phenomena would reach peak interest at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix when fans saw Lewis Hamilton literally limping out of his W13 which then started the discussions with the FIA to step in and make a change to help teams finally eradicate the problem.
Since then, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has been canvassing the opinion of all the teams and drivers these past few races to understand the severity of the situation and to see where the governing body can fairly insert themselves. Since then, the FIA has pushed to change the 2023 technical regulations and lift floor edges by 25mm which has proven to help eliminate car bouncing.
This proposal has been opposed by teams that have dealt with the porpoising successfully and have instead countered that the regulation should be changed to a 10mm raise. But it seems as though Ben Sulayem isn’t willing to compromise and there have been talks of a potential legal challenge from a good number of teams if the FIA goes ahead with their initial proposal.
But Mercedes on the other hand is one of the very few teams on the grid that welcomes the proposed regulations and team Boss Toto Wolff would argue that the medical evidence on the possible effects of porpoising can have on drivers should be enough to not water down the approach. In his words:
“There’s all this talk of lobbying in either direction, but I think fundamentally, what are we talking about? The FIA has commissioned medical work on the porpoising. The summary of the doctors is that frequency of 1-2Hz, sustained over a few minutes, can lead to brain damage. We have 6-7Hz over several hours. So the answer is very easy: the FIA needs to do something about it.”
But despite the medical evidence the FIA has collected, not every team on the grid is convinced and willing to budge on their stance. One of those teams is Ferrari who believes that the technical directive that is set into action at the Belgian Grand Prix where teams will have to stick within an Aerodynamic Oscillation Metric or AOM, once the season resumes in late August will be enough to get rid of the issue.
Ferrari’s Racing director Laurent Mekies would say:
“I think we need to be very careful when we speak about safety grounds. I think we were all in this [press conference] room last time we discussed it and that was for the halo, these sort of things. There are a few important topics to be discussing in future: roll hoops or something else. So I think you need to separate that from the discussions we are having with teams, with the FIA, on how to make situations better for the porpoising and in that context, the TD [for Spa] is doing a good job.”
Many teams would also argue that porpoising peaked at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and has since been on a decline. But Toto Wolff would argue that it would be wrong to think that the problem has been fully eradicated saying:
“I still fundamentally believe that there is no choice for the FIA and for us to do something. I don’t want to have it in Spa, or at some of the later races where the track is not as smooth as on a conventional racetrack, and we haven’t done anything, and people say: ‘well, now it’s too late. The argument is we haven’t had any porpoising and bouncing in the last few races. But it doesn’t count because Silverstone, Paul Ricard, and Austria aren’t exactly tracking that we bounce at anyway.”
And as always, red bull team boss Christian Horner would also have something to say about the upcoming regulations saying:
It’s not just about the raising of the floor height, or the [diffuser] throat height, which can have an impact into components that you wish to even carry over for next year. “I think that there are other aspects regarding increasing the load test on the leading edge of the floor, for example. We don’t want to get into some aeroelastic race that, whilst the height of the floor is raised, the elasticity becomes the flavour of the day, and we all end up chasing wackier elastic concepts. I think it’s important that the whole package in its entirety is dealt with, rather than cherry picking single elements.
And that is not all the FIA has had to deal with these past few days as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen would also go on a furious tirade this past weekend about how the FIA has dealt with imposing track limitations. The FIA would first receive scrutiny regarding the subject at the Austrian GP where Verstappen would also spearhead the conversation saying in a gentle that the FIA should work to be better in imposing this regulation. And now in Hungary, it seems as though Verstappen has reached his boiling point and would go on a tirade saying:
“We just have so many silly little things which make it also difficult for them to police. I don’t know. As drivers, we always want to help and give our advice but nothing is heard and for me, that is extremely frustrating. But for example last night they started talking about Turn 13, the exit, that the line was the track edge. But there’s a kerb and a white line next to it, which to me personally is the track edge. For me that’s extremely frustrating. I don’t want to fight with them, I just want to advise them but they don’t really care and they actually, for my feeling, look at us a bit like we are amateurs and I don’t think that’s correct. Most of the time when you look at onboard cameras the camera is on the wrong side so the angle almost looks like you’re off but sometimes you’re not, you’re still on. So it’s very hard and I think we can do ourselves a favour by making it a lot easier by adding a bit of gravel on the exit or whatever. Like Austria, for example, why do we need track limits in a turn [Turn 6] where there’s naturally gravel and even if you go out by this much you will penalise yourself if you go wide or if you go there you damage the floor anyway so your car’s going slower? They just make it super-hard for themselves. Of course people say ‘yeah, just stay within the white line’ but that’s easier said than done. But then again, what I said about this total line as well, it’s just so confusing…”
And there you have it guys? So, who’s side are you on? Do you think the FIA is being unfair? And will the FIA finally get their act together regarding how they implement track limitations? Let us know in the comment section below and as always, don’t forget to like and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t!
