Ferrari: F1 teams have underestimated ‘porpoising’ phenomenon

Porpoising - a phenomenon that was a common occurrence in F1 during the previous ground effect era - has become one of the dominant talking points of the first pre-season test, having caused a headache for several teams at Barcelona. 

With F1’s new generation of cars seeing a return to a ground effect philosophy, several cars have suffered with the issue over the opening two days of running at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya. 

Cars have been spotted bouncing up and down on their suspension after reaching high speed on the straights, resulting in a loss of downforce and presenting a potential problem for the drivers through the fastest corners. 

Mercedes and Alpine were visibly effected on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, but almost all of the teams appear to be struggling with their cars bouncing. 

Ferrari team principal Binotto believes most of the team’s did not anticipate porpoising becoming an issue when developing their cars on the wind tunnel. 

“I think most of us at least underestimated the problem, in terms of [being] on track and bouncing more than expected,” he said. 

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“When you're setting these cars up with the ground [effect] floor, the situation it's different. It's a learning process.”

While Binotto thinks a fix “can be quite straightforward”, he thinks teams who get a handle on the problem the earliest will have an advantage at the start of the season. 

“Optimising the performance, because it should not be a compromise, you should try to avoid the bouncing by getting the most of the performance of the car,” he explained. 

"That could be a less easy exercise. I am pretty sure that at some stage the team will get to the solution.

“How long it will take? The ones that will get there sooner will have an advantage at the start of the season.”

That view was echoed by Alfa Romeo team principal Frederic Vasseur, who revealed his side’s C42 challenger was also suffering from the effects of porpoising. 

“Some elements are not easy to duplicate in the windtunnel or the simulator, and we are all facing the same issue,” he said. 

“To fix the problem is not the biggest issue, but then to be efficient will be the key. 

“How quickly the team will react will the key for the first races. I’m sure that in three or four events, we won’t speak anymore about bouncing but today it’s the question.”