Poll: Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2022, Baku - Race 8
- Thread starter chrismscotland
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Caporegime
Palmer thinks Alonso deliberately caused a yellow flag during Qualifying (on YouTube, not embeddable).
That's surely over the line of acceptable behaviour, isn't it?
That's surely over the line of acceptable behaviour, isn't it?
Caporegime
I dunno, we've seen it a couple of times happening between front-runners battling for a title, still unacceptable but somehow understandable. A midfielder doing it for a point or two is new.
As I said at the time. Losing control like Rosberg did in Monaco...
Soldato
Didn't get a reprimand, so I guess not. Alonso knew exactly what he was doing, long before that corner - just being out there on used tyres made that pretty obvious.
Caporegime
It wasn't even investigated. I hope the FIA will keep a better eye on it for later races.
Well no one has said it gets rid of it, but ask yourself the question why is their ride height higher? I expect it does still reduce it to more bearable levels.
Soldato
Hamilton already said in the interviews that what they were experiencing on Sunday wasn't the porpoising they've had before. They're literally running that car on the bump stops down the straights, so he's feeling every little bump in the road right through his spine.
It's really not good for them. But they're the ones setting their car up like that.
It's interesting that AM don't appear to be experiencing the same issues now, despite being a very similar car underneath the Red Bull body kit. I think Mercedes are now too far invested in this no-pod aero concept to admit that they've gone down fundamentally the wrong path. Trying to get their inferior package anywhere near to the pace of the Ferrari or RB means having to compromise the ride so much that it's dangerous.
It's really not good for them. But they're the ones setting their car up like that.
It's interesting that AM don't appear to be experiencing the same issues now, despite being a very similar car underneath the Red Bull body kit. I think Mercedes are now too far invested in this no-pod aero concept to admit that they've gone down fundamentally the wrong path. Trying to get their inferior package anywhere near to the pace of the Ferrari or RB means having to compromise the ride so much that it's dangerous.
Soldato
Yes it is the car bouncing off the track due to the bumps, the low and hard suspension settings. Definitely never was it ever porpoising at Baku. Neither is the Alpine having either issues as well..
The "no-side pod" aero package is a complete and utter red herring.
They could swap back to the more "conventional" looking side pods used at first Barcelona testing in a matter of a few minutes.
However that will have zero effect on the issues they are having, which is why they have not swapped back.
No one said the Mercs were not porpoiseing at all.
EVERY team is suffering porpoiseing to some degree or other.
Just that the setup Mercs were running exaggerated the problems even more.
Soldato
So we're agreed then, it wasn't porpoising but bouncing that was occuring to Lewis's car...
Either way, all teams were experiencing it, and have experienced it to differing degrees throughout the races so far. It's not healthy, it's bordering on dangerous, and makes the cars look dumb to boot.
Deleted member 651465
D
Deleted member 651465
Merc have also been running the world's stiffest suspension for as long as I can remember... which isn't helping.
Yet stiff suspension is exactly what you do want to get ground effect to work properly.
As speeds increase, and the pressure differential under vs over the car sucks the car down to the road you want suspension that does NOT compress as the loads increase, so the ride height remains exactly as you set it with no load on.
Incredibly stiff suspension is perfect for ground effect on lovely smooth tracks, but absolute hell on street circuits with all the lumps and bumps and manhole covers etc.
You would think the FIA may have thought of that, as they have introduced more and more street tracks to the calander.
Caporegime
This is why I think the FIA needs to change the rules, even in cars which "don't suffer porpoising" they are bouncing off the track to an extreme degree. Simultaneously switching to tyres that don't have anyway near as much travel in their smaller sidewalls and hamstringing the suspension set up in the car was a mistake, and that mistake has higher consequences on street tracks.
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