Hamilton and Verstappen, FIA board conflicting opinion

After what hamilton had difficulty getting out of his car standard due to severe back pain he sustained due to how much his vehicle bounced, the FIA ​​acted on the matter and issued a new directive on Thursday in which it ensured that it could control the bounce of vehicles by establishing a maximum limit . of the vertical acceleration that teams must follow for the safety of their pilots. This generated a huge variation of opinions on the first day of the F1 Canadian GP.

“What’s coming this weekend I think is more of a Band-Aid than a definitive solution. We need to wait and see because even the teams that aren’t suffering that much, are suffering hard. They have to see those vertical accelerations and whether or not they are more than what is known. ” considered safe. More conversations are needed to see where we go from here, ”said one of those most affected, George Russell (Mercedes).

“I don’t fully agree. It’s the team’s responsibility to give me a car that can be driven. And I don’t have a problem with the car I have. Yes, it’s harder than last year. If it’s irresistible or very hard … I don’t think so, at least personally. For our part we have found solutions to improve it “, said Leclerc, against said novelty.

But it was Esteban Ocon who taught one of the main keys.

“There are two things. We shouldn’t mix porpoising with the overall hardness of the car. Because there are some corners where, for example in Monaco, after the tunnel, when I played the piano, I felt it hard on my body. And it’s not a question of a bounce on the straight. Ang tigas ng sasakyan in general is also an issue and it’s not necessarily the porpoising you have on the straight. “

At Mercedes they have already clarified that their rebound is no longer caused by the ‘porpoising’ the team experienced at the start of the season. At the beginning of the course all the vehicles bounced due to the sudden disappearance of the so -called ‘ground effect’ which absorbed the vehicle until it touched the asphalt. There, the car quickly bounced back and then hit again, forming a continuous rebound cycle. Porpoising can be reduced by varying the suspension height and stiffness. And in very difficult suspensions, in circuits like Baku the rebound returns, but is formed by so -called ‘bottoning’. Due to the lack of ‘porpoising’, Mercedes lowered the vehicle to the ground and was able to touch the asphalt several times due to the many potholes there. Then came Hamilton’s back pain and FIA guidance.

Hamilton and Verstappen, completely different opinions

“Regardless of whether it helps us or not … making changes in the middle of the season I think it’s not right,” Verstappen said directly. “Of course I understand the safety argument. But if you talk to any engineer in the paddock, if you lift your car you’ll have fewer problems. Of course we and the team want to find that limit and see if what we can face find that performance. I don’t think it’s right for them to step in now and start applying those rules when some teams are doing better than others. ”

“If you can’t afford to deal with porpoising it’s so simple, raise the car and you won’t have these problems. It makes it pretty confusing and it’s going to be hard to please everyone,” the Dutchman added, making it clear that the teams like Mercedes, where their vehicles are bouncing excessively, they must lift the vehicle to make their vehicle safer, even if it slows them down.

“I think safety is key and I think even one driver on each team spoke about it,” Lewis Hamilton said by his side afterwards, after hearing Verstappen’s complaints. “I don’t think it’s going to change that much. The FIA ​​is already working hard to improve it because we’re going to have this car in the next few years. It’s not about dealing with the rebound, but completely removing it in order to be on. future, we don’t have back problems. No, I think it will greatly change performance. I may be wrong, “he said, clarifying that the FIA ​​guideline should only be the beginning of a larger technical change. regulation for 2023.