Mercedes’ F1 car porpoising performance cost is ‘large’ - Hamilton

Hamilton finished third in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix after gaining two positions in the closing laps thanks to Red Bull’s double retirement.

He was running over 30 seconds behind eventual race winner Charles Leclerc before the late-race Safety Car caused by Pierre Gasly with porpoising at the core of the W13’s issues.

Mercedes has tried to reduce the impact of porpoising by compromising the car setup and thus costing crucial lap time.

Speaking ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Hamilton revealed that Mercedes has lost a significant amount of performance by raising its car to combat the bouncing issue.

“I’ve not been given exact numbers but I know they are large, but I know that it’s the same for everyone,” Hamilton said. “Those have had to raise their car, there’s much steeper steps compared to what we’ve seen in previous years and there’s lots of performance when you can reduce some of the steps by lowering the cars.

“The cars that are ahead of us, have for example, an incredible amount of low speed downforce. I don’t know what the exact number is but I know that it’s not small.”

Hamilton is hopeful the smoother Jeddah track surface results in less bouncing for Mercedes this weekend.

“It’s different, so yeah, it shouldn’t be as bumpy as Bahrain, which is a much older circuit and has got more character to it because it is as old as it is,” he added. “This track is super fast but a different surface that’ll behave with the tyres differently.

“These long, long straights might not be too fun with the bouncing if we still have it. But those that have the bouncing are in the same boat and hopefully we will try and fix some of it.”

George Russell admitted he and teammate Hamilton could be put in a “dangerous situation” if Mercedes struggles with porpoising through Jeddah’s high-speed bends.

“For us last week in Bahrain it was definitely not pleasant down the straights,” Russell explained. “The difference here is that there are no straights, the straights are bends. If we experience that, we could find ourselves in a dangerous situation but we have to wait and see, I can't look into the future.”