Hamilton injury blamed by F1 chief for rule change: “They went public, loudly”
The Mercedes driver emerged gingerly from his car at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, holding his lower back in obvious distress at the height of Mercedes’ problems with bouncing.
The FIA then introduced a new technical directive to reduce porpoising on “safety grounds”.
“I think they overreacted a bit after Baku,” F1 chief technical officer Pat Symonds told Auto Motor Und Sport.
“In Baku, we experienced the worst effects because a team tried something that didn't work and then went public quite loudly.
“If we had not intervened, the problems would have been solved. Most teams have now understood how to control bouncing.”
The FIA did not need to arrange a vote with all 10 F1 teams because the rule was on safety grounds.
Mercedes were the most obviously impacted by the porpoising phenomenon, although other drivers such as Daniel Ricciardo described the pain they felt inside a bouncing car.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner appeared to criticise the rule at the time.
"It would seem unfair to penalise the ones that have done a decent job, versus the ones that have perhaps missed the target slightly,” Horner said.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
