The regulation discussions for the F1 2022 world championship have been dominated by porpoising concerns in the newly designed F1 cars this year. Several teams have suffered the effects of violent bouncing at high speeds. And Mercedes have been the team who have struggled the most. The Silver Arrows found themselves far behind Red Bull and Ferrari in terms of pace and the stability of their ground-effect W-13 car. As a result, they have not won a single race so far in the season after being focused on getting rid of the bouncing.
Mercedes demanded the FIA to look into the matter and called for a regulation change. Moreover, after drivers complained about the bouncing during the race in Baku and the FIA decided to intervene. The sport’s governing body came up with some regulation changes in terms of vertical oscillations and flexibility of the plank and skid area in the car’s floor. However, there have not been any difficulties with bouncing since Baku.
Hence, the rival teams with Red Bull’s Horner at the front pointed out that there have been no signs of bouncing lately. But, Mercedes’ Toto Wolff advocated by claiming that porpoising is track specific and would resurface later in the season. He reckoned that Horner’s argument does not count as the last few races have been on smoother tracks like Silverstone, Austria, and Paul Ricard. He did not want bouncing to come back to Spa or some other bouncier tracks later in the season.
F1 Teams Compromise Over Floor Height Change For 2023! Mercedes Disappointed
Moreover, Mercedes called for a design change for the 2023 season. They demanded the FIA to increase the floor height to 25 mm, citing safety concerns. In matters of drivers’ safety, the FIA could have taken the decision unanimously without involving the teams. However, the FIA called for a team vote regarding the matter during Wednesday’s Technical Advisory Meeting. The teams and the sport’s governing body ultimately came to the decision to raise the floor height by 15mm for the next season.
Six teams opposed Mercedes’ demands and called for a compromise. Horner believed that a major change in the floor height would affect the structuring and design of the whole car. As a result, they would not have been able to induce some similar parts in next year’s cars. The Red Bull boss advocated that major regulation changes would result in heavy financial problems as teams have already started working on their 2023 car designs. Further, there were rumors about the opposing teams threatening a legal challenge on the FIA if they accepted Mercedes’ request as they were.