Horner: FIA shouldn’t change F1 floor rules for “a certain team”

Last week, the FIA announced a number of measures they could potentially introduce for next year to combat the issue of porpoising.

Porpoising - the bouncing movement down the straights - has been a common issue up and down the paddock, affecting Mercedes the most.

After the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Mercedes were particularly vocal about the problem after Lewis Hamilton struggled to get out of his W13 car as he struggled with the bouncing and the impact it was having on his back.

As a result, the FIA has put in place a technical directive for the Belgian GP in August which will see teams required to stiffen their plank skids as well as ensure they remain below the metric provided by F1’s governing body with regards to bouncing.

While Horner has no issue with the new technical directive, he’s concerned about the potential changes for next year which could ultimately benefit Mercedes, although he doesn’t specifically name the German manufacturer.

“It’s not so much the directive is the issue, the problem is what they’re looking for as a remedy for next year,” Horner said. “The directive is neither here nor there for us. There is an awful lot of lobbying to change the regulations significantly for next year so a certain team can run their car lower and benefit from that concept. 

“It’s a very late point in the year to be doing this. The president is doing the right thing, he’s collating all of the information and hopefully, a sensible solution can be found as it’s too late in the day for fundamental regulation changes like something like that would be.”

While porpoising has been an issue in the early part of the season, it hasn’t been seen in recent rounds.

The smoother track surfaces at Silverstone and Paul Ricard have helped eradicate the issue, so the coming races at the Hungaroring and Spa-Francorchamps could prove stiffer tests.

“We haven’t had a problem all year, there’s only one team that has had a big problem,” Horner added. “Look,  we’ve got some of the most talented engineers in the world in this sport and I can almost guarantee you if we came back last year there would be no cars probably with these issues. 

“The last few races, it’s looked OK. Here looks OK. I think what we don’t want to do is knee-jerk into an overreaction that could have fundamental impacts on next year’s cars.”

“More than a loophole.”

On the other hand, Toto Wolff thinks that the FIA should have introduced the technical directive when it was first discovered ahead of the Canadian GP.

While examining the porpoising issue, the FIA found that some teams’ planks and floors were flexing beyond the allowed amount, thus gaining an unfair aerodynamic advantage.

“I think it was a coincidence that the FIA spotted it in one of the races and made it clear that this wasn’t on,” Wolff explained. “There’s no such thing as a magic bullet unless you speak of a double diffuser, so it’s not going to make a big difference. They’re probably going to have to run it more on the front, a bit higher than they’re used to. 

“I think this TD should have been brought into place when it was discovered, three races ago, so the argument of is it fair to have brought it into the middle of the season is the wrong one, it should have been introduced when it was discovered because it is clearly much more than a loophole.”