- The 2022 F1 season starts next week, on March 18th.
- The F1 cars have an aerodynamic design that causes them to bounce around like a porpoise.
- New in-car views of the bouncers show why they are making drivers feel dizzy.
On the eve of the 2022 Formula One season, the drivers are dealing with a new challenge that is making them feel sick — “porpoising” — and it looks even more miserable than first imagined.
F1 introduced new regulations in 2022. These changes changed the aerodynamics to improve the action on track. It is hoped that the modifications will make it easier to challenge rivals in front.
However, the new design causes cars to bounce more on long straightaways than they would expect. This makes the driver appear like a porpoise swimming up and down in the ocean.
Although we already saw the effect on the cars, the first time fans were able to see how much the bouncing could cause damage to the drivers was during Thursday’s testing in Bahrain.
F1 TV offered an in-car glimpse at Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri car. It shows Gasly’s head moving uncontrollably towards the end of the long straightaway.
Drivers are finding it difficult to see the road at 200 mph. But the bouncing is making some drivers physically sick.
Ferrari cars were among the most affected by the porpoising. Charles Leclerc said it was like a bumpy flight.
“It feels like turbulence on an airplane, going up and down the whole straight,” Leclerc spoke to reporters following the first round of testing in Barcelona. “I think one of the videos that F1 posted shows this phenomenon quite well, and I can’t say it feels nice. It makes you a little bit ill.”
—Autosport (@autosport) February 24, 2022
Laurence Edmondson, ESPNAerodynamically, the new cars behave like an upside down plane. This means that instead of creating lift like an aircraft, the car designs can generate amazing amounts of downforce which pushes the wheeled rockets closer to track.
“The length of the car is treated as an upside-down aeroplane wing with the lower surface profiled to generate low air pressure under the car and suck it to the track,”Edmondson wrote.
When the car’s body is too close to the track, the aerodynamics becomes a problem and the downforce is lost. This causes the car to lift, and the downforce then takes over. This cycle continues and becomes even more prominent.
This is how it looks.
—Scherazade Mulia Saraswati (@ScherazadeMS) March 2, 2022
At this stage, it’s unclear if teams can come up with a solution before the season starts or if the drivers will have the to deal with it. F1 could be in trouble if Leclerc starts feeling sick after only a few laps.