Max Verstappen is not enthusiastic about the intervention of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) to curb the porpoising phenomenon in Formula 1 2022. Before the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, the FIA announced that it wanted to take action for safety reasons. But Verstappen finds that this is not appropriate.
“Regardless of whether that helps us or whether it works against us: I don’t think changing the rules in the middle of the season is correct,” says the 2021 Formula 1 world champion.
“Of course I can understand the safety concerns. But you can talk to any engineer in the paddock [und er wird sagen]: If you set the car higher, you will have fewer problems.”
“Of course, as a team, you try to go to the limit of what you can physically endure [möglichst viel] get performance. But I don’t think it’s right to intervene now. Because it’s actually quite simple: Raise the ride height and the problems go away.”
The argument that one no longer wants to jeopardize the health of the drivers is also not convincing to Verstappen. He says simply: “There are many sports that I believe damage the body.”
“You can always debate what the safest course of action is, but we [Fahrer] are willing to take risks. That’s the way it is in motorsport. And that’s what I love.”
“Some teams handle it better than others”
Verstappen does not want to be misunderstood at this point. “Of course,” he says, the porpoising and bouncing of Formula 1 cars in 2022 is “not nice” for the driver and he personally doesn’t think it’s good either.
From his point of view, however, one thing is certain: “Some teams deal with it better than others. It is therefore possible to get rid of it. And we must not over-dramatize what is happening at the moment. Because in Formula 1 there are many clever people who do that out of the world.” No technical specifications from the world association are needed for this.
Because for Verstappen, one thing is still unclear about the countermeasures announced by the FIA: How the rulers want to ensure compliance with the new guidelines. Verstappen imagines this to be “difficult”. Postscript: “But we’ll see.”