Valtteri Bottas has disagreed with George Russell after the Briton claimed the porpoising that teams experienced during testing in Barcelona “has the potential to be a real safety concern.” Bottas has been replaced by Russell at Mercedes ahead of the new season as Lewis Hamilton is set to race alongside a new team-mate for the first time since 2017.
Drivers returned to the track last week as they underwent pre-season testing in their revamped cars.
A whole host of new rules have been introduced by F1 to make the sport more exciting and the changes have resulted in a redesign of cars.
An F1 car now experiences more downforce, with the underside of it being sucked towards the track as air rushes through a shrinking gap.
This leads to a pressure difference between the underside and upper surfaces, with the downforce increasing even more, until it stalls.
The load is suddenly released and the bottom of the car rises up quickly in response. And as this cycle is repeated over and over again, the car bounces around.
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“And if you find a way to have a good ride in the car, being able to run it low, you might gain some performance.
“But obviously in some places [that comes] with a cost of the ride itself, especially in high speeds and over the bumps.
“So it’s quite an interesting new philosophy on the aero side of the car. I don’t think it’s going to be a big concern.
“As a team we need to work around it and we need to make sure that the car is reliable enough for these regulations and it’s the same case for every team.
“I think now it’s a big talking point but I would imagine as long as the season starts going, teams are understanding more and more, it’s going to be less of an issue and less of a talking point.”
F1 testing is set to continue in Bahrain on Thursday, March 10, before the first Grand Prix of the 2022 season gets underway on Sunday, March 20.