Pierre Gasly is pleased the FIA has acted “quickly” to address drivers’ concerns about porpoising and bottoming in 2022 F1 cars.
The new ground effect cars introduced this year generate the majority of their downforce through the airflow underneath their floors. This has resulted in some teams experiencing porposing – where the car bounces at high speed – and bottoming over bumps, causing major discomfort to drivers after long stints in the cars.
Yesterday, ahead of the first day of practice for the Canadian Grand Prix, the FIA announced they had issued a technical directive outlining how they will conduct tests to understand the effect porpoising is having and set a limit on how severely a car may bounce before it is deemed unacceptable.
Gasly is pleased the governing body is making efforts to protect drivers. “I’m happy they’re taking it seriously, that they’re trying to take some measures as fast as possible,” Gasly said.
“At the end of the day, we are the ones in the car having to deal with all these impacts and pains and stiffness that it creates in our back. I’m just happy they understood the message and reacted quickly with some actions.”
Following last week’s race Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said some teams’ warnings over porpoising were aimed at pushing the FIA to introduce rules which would help them cut their performance deficit. However, Gasly insists all 20 drivers agree action must be taken to reduce porpoising and bottoming out across the field.
“We all, between each other – putting the interest of any teams or any car aside – we all clearly said this is clearly too much,” Gasly explained.
“You can’t even realise what it’s like just watching from onboards or watching from outside. Once you drive in the car and you get hit for an hour-and-a-half driving at 330[km/h], then it’s all a different perception once you actually experience what it is.
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“So I think we are the best placed to discuss the matter and I’m just happy they understood that this is a serious, serious topic for all of us going forward.”
While Haas team principal Guenther Steiner fears the anti-porpoising directive could have an impact on the relative performance of the 10 teams, Gasly doubts it will significantly alter the competitive order.
“I think it’s going to be minimal,” he said. “I think we’re talking about things which could be changed which would affect very, very little part of the performance of everyone’s cars.”
Lewis Hamilton has shared images on social media of him receiving physiotherapy to help his body recover from the effects of driving his 2022 car. Asked by RaceFans whether he is undergoing more physiotherapy this year than he did in 2021, Gasly replied: “big time”.
“Last year I always had my, let’s say, normal sessions on Thursday and Saturday,” he explained. “But it was really more to prevent anything, where now it’s really to work on the tissues, the back and release all the pressure and the tensions we’ve got.”
Gasly insists none of the F1 drivers are exaggerating the seriousness of the problem. “We are not here just to complain,” he said. “It’s not like we want to complain about something – we are not like that.
“I think we all love the sport as it is. We are all trying to just make it a better place and push it forward. It’s just a concern for our all of us, before even relating it to any performance – just putting all the performance aside.”
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