F1 | George Russell on the porpoising effect: "It's not sustainable, I've been truly struggling with back and chest pains"
George Russell explained how porpoising affected his drive until now, and then added that a solution must be found shortly.
Despite the fourth place conquered by George Russell in the Emilia Romagna GP, on the circuit of Imola, in Italy, Mercedes still seems to be struggling under many aspects, in several ways.
Probably, the weather conditions of the last race also allowed the young Englishman to bring home such a positive outcome, but on the other hand the weekend was not fruitful for his teammate, 7 times world champion, Lewis Hamilton, who was even excluded from the points.
The car needs development in multiple areas, as Mercedes' team principal Toto Wolff continues to report, but what needs to be worked on even more is a way to minimize the effect of porpoising, which is affecting a lot the performance of the cars and of the drivers themselves in a negative way, as single-seaters are very unpleasant to drive in that condition.
“It didn’t really feel like a proper racing car, but when it’s in the right window, except for the bouncing it feels like a good car to drive,” Russell said right after the race to the media.
Porpoising is an aspect that is strongly influencing the performance of the new cars in this 2022 F1 season. It consists of a sudden loss of aerodynamic load of the cars, which causes them to bounce, also altering the comfort of the drive.
Still trying to wrap your head around #F1's latest technical term 'porpoising'? 🐬
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 22, 2022
Wonder no more! 👀😅#BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/V9ONgUigwf
“The bouncing just really takes your breath away. It's the most extreme I've ever felt it.” George Russell said, referring to the problem, for which Mercedes doesn't seem to find any kind of solution, or at least improvement.
“I really hope we find a solution and I hope every team who's struggling with the bouncing finds a solution because it's not sustainable for the drivers to continue with this level.”
“This is the first weekend where I've been truly struggling with my back and like chest pains from the severity of the bouncing,” Russell said.
“But it’s just what we have to do get the fastest lap times out of the car,” he concluded.
P4 out of nowhere today. Pleased with the result but we won’t stop pushing for more. Good little battle with KMag & VB too, enjoyed that. Thanks for all the support. 👊👊 pic.twitter.com/K9WiNLlK2s
— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) April 24, 2022
