F1: In trying to copy Red Bull, Mercedes forgot to fix the bouncing

While trying to copy Red Bull’s superior 2023 F1 cars, the Mercedes F1 team forgot to address its bouncing (porpoising) issue adequately.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The Mercedes F1 drivers suffered terribly in 2022. They felt like jackhammer operators as the Mercedes F1 cars bounced wildly because its underbody was inferior to Red Bull’s, which did not suffer from the same problem.

With the advent of the new ground effect cars in 2022, some teams’s aerodynamic simulations in the wind tunnel during design failed to identify the porpoising problem they were suffering on the racetrack.

Some teams, like Red Bull, never had a problem at all, while others took many races to get on top of it.

Mercedes never really did.

Raising the ride height of the car reduces the porpoising problem, but decreases downforce and hence performance.

So a team like Mercedes was stuck between a rock and a hard place – raise the ride height or shake its drivers’ eyeballs out of their sockets.

The Porpoising is Back in 2023

The Mercedes F1 cars were inferior to the Red Bulls in 2022, and again in 2023. Lead driver Lewis Hamilton is demanding that Mercedes designers copy the Red Bull.

They have brought many upgrades to the car throughout the year, and still, they trail the Red Bulls.

They have changed just about everything on their car, it would seem, with the philosophy “if you throw enough shit against the wall, hopefully something will stick.”

In trying to figure out Red Bull’s secrets, Mercedes failed to address their porpoising problem adequately, and when they lowered the ride height of their cars at Spa last weekend, the porpoising returned.

“We suffered with a huge amount of bouncing today,” said Mercedes driver George Russell.

“A number of teams did, maybe not as severe as we did.

“Still, obviously a bit of a shame to see that as a sport at the pinnacle of motorsport, the majority of teams are still struggling with bouncing.

“I hope something can be solved in that regard in the future.”

And Russell’s teammate Lewis Hamilton also indicated after the race bouncing was happening for him, too – saying it was “like last year” and “everywhere”.

If the Red Bulls are not having this issue, obviously it is not the regulations, but your design engineers who do not have a good handle on aerodynamics.

The idea that the regulation changes for this year, in particular raising the floor edges by 15mm and the diffuser throat by 10mm, would eliminate bouncing and porpoising was only a band-aid to help the inferior cars like Mercedes.

Mercedes can try to blame the regulations all they want, meanwhile the Red Bull drivers are the ones smiling on the podium every weekend, not complaining of porpoising whatsoever.