Formula 1: FIA refuses to back down on ‘bouncing’ controls

Formula 1’s governing body has resisted pressure from teams to back down on its moves to limit the ‘bouncing’ of cars.

Title contenders Red Bull and Ferrari were among those to object to the FIA’s attempts to control the amount cars can demonstrate the phenomenon.

But an FIA statement said: “It is the responsibility and prerogative of the FIA to intervene on safety matters.”

The measures will come into force at the Belgian Grand Prix, which will take place from 26-28 August.

The FIA’s commitment to the topic was confirmed at a meeting of F1’s technical advisory committee on Thursday.

The governing body is to introduce a metric which will determine the maximum amount of bouncing that is permitted by each car.

Teams will have to make set-up changes if their car exceeds the limit and could face disqualification if it does so during qualifying or a race.

In addition, the FIA has taken measures to limit the flexibility of the cars’ floors after it came to the conclusion in its measurements of the cars’ bouncing in recent races that some teams had found ways to flex their floors beyond expected limits.

What is bouncing?

Bouncing is a phenomenon that has returned to F1 for the first time in 40 years this season as a result of rule changes aimed at generating closer racing.

These have changed the way the aerodynamics of the cars work and reintroduced something called ground effect, by which downforce is created by accelerating the airflow under the cars’ floors.

This has led to two different but related problems:

Porpoising – when the airflow becomes disrupted, the car raises as downforce is lost, then lowers as the airflow stabilises, before stalling again, leading to a high-frequency vertical oscillation.
Bouncing – where the stiffness of the suspension set-ups required to run ground effect efficiently leads to the car displaying poor ride properties over bumps.

The drivers are concerned about the safety implications of the two phenomena and at a meeting at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last month collectively asked the FIA to intervene.

Lewis Hamilton suffered vertical loads in excess of 10G in his Mercedes during the Baku race. – bbc.com