• Ferrari and Charles Leclerc aren’t too affected by the porpoising affecting teams in 2022.
• Leclerc said despite the issues, he still manages to extract maximum performance from his car.
• Ferrari confirmed it would address the porpoising issues soon.
• For more motoring stories, visit Wheels24
The Ferrari F1-75 suffers from porpoising problems like many other cars on the grid, but Charles Leclerc has revealed he is “not very sensitive” to it.
Porpoising, which refers to the bouncing motion of the car on its suspension seen mainly on the straights, has been a thorn in the side of several drivers this season, with Mercedes’ George Russell saying recently it costs his team a lot of performance.
Ferrari and Leclerc also seemed to be dealing with a lot of porpoising at the recent Australian GP. While they are looking to address it soon with the introduction of floor upgrades, they have the luxury of having a driver who is not too bothered by it.
According to Motorsport-Total.com, Leclerc said after the Australian Grand Prix: “I don’t know why, but I’m not very sensitive to it. And, of course, I feel it. But it doesn’t bother me too much in terms of performance, only in Turn 9, maybe a little bit I wouldn’t have been able to go any faster if I hadn’t had the bouncing.
“On the restart, it was a bit difficult because I had it before Turn 1. That’s when you’re not so sure on the brakes. But everything went well. But of course, it’s not really comfortable to do 58 laps like that. “
Charles Leclerc after winning the 2022 Australian Grand Prix.
Addressing the issue
At the same time, Leclerc knows it is an issue Ferrari will need to address.
He added: “It’s definitely something we want to tackle. Because it doesn’t help us with consistency, especially once you bounce in a corner, it can be a problem. So that’s something we need to work on.”
Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto has admitted they have not “completely” solved the problem, saying: “It’s something we are working on. We know it’s not completely solved yet.
“Maybe already in Imola, we will try to mitigate it further if we can. But it is something that we know is not fully solved yet. It’s not a surprise; it’s something that’s difficult to keep under control.
“There are races or track layouts where we suffer from it more than others – whatever the reasons. So when we came here [Melbourne]we knew since Friday that it could have been a problem for this weekend, as well.”
