The FIA is about to introduce new limits of how a lot vehicles can bounce from the following race in Belgium earlier than pushing by regulation modifications for 2023 to curb the porpoising challenge groups have encountered this yr.
Quite a lot of drivers have highlighted the doable issues of safety concerned, however some groups have questioned whether or not it’s a real security matter and whether it is as an alternative getting used as justification for modifications which may supply a aggressive benefit.
Mercedes F1 boss Wolff has seen his staff face among the worst bouncing points this season, most notably in Baku, the place Lewis Hamilton was seen holding his again after getting out of the automobile on the finish of the race.
Wolff warned the FIA couldn’t ignore the info pointing to the doable risks of porpoising, noting the medical analysis performed with American Soccer gamers relating to move accidents after repetitive impacts by their careers.
“It is quite simple: we have now all the time stated we will both do nothing, or do the appropriate factor,” Wolff informed Autosport in an interview.
“We now have, and FIA has, you may ask them, medical evaluation, that frequencies of 1 or two hertz over a number of minutes can result in long run mind harm. We now have six to seven hertz over a number of hours.
“The FIA has simply no possibility than to do one thing, and I feel that making an attempt to depart issues alone, or have groups lobbying for it or towards it, it is simply fully irrelevant.
“It is a medical query that must be answered. And these experiences are a actuality and they’re truth. I do not suppose that the gang across the FIA will let themselves be manipulated in both course.
“The GPDA gave their statements, the drivers have given the statements on an nameless kind. The competent specialists and medical doctors have been consulting, and the result’s that it is not good for long-term impact.
“The FIA says it would not wish to have an NFL state of affairs.”
Toto Wolff, Workforce Principal and CEO, Mercedes AMG
Picture by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Pictures
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem wrote on Twitter earlier this week that the up to date technical laws for 2023 had been despatched to the World Motor Sport Council, though it’s unclear what if any settlement had been reached with groups regarding the flooring modifications.
Pink Bull staff boss Christian Horner stated in France that the “lobbying” to vary the principles for 2023 have been to assist a “sure staff”, hinting at Mercedes.
However Wolff stated he noticed the push to make these modifications “very otherwise” to earlier efforts to get rule breaks, and that Mercedes’ latest upswing in kind – together with its first pole of the season in Hungary courtesy of George Russell – isn’t any purpose to surrender on efforts to vary the principles due to the necessary security challenge at hand.
“You could possibly say right this moment, it looks as if we have now understood our automobile, we’re on prime of it – we have now pole, let’s not change something,” Wolff stated.
“It is irrelevant, as a result of it’s a frequency of bouncing and porpoising that is unhealthy for the drivers. We do not perceive and may’t even relate how it’s to be shaken round in these vehicles.
“Have we obtained and have all of the groups gotten on prime of it? Perhaps. Perhaps not. We have not been on a bouncing observe.
“Do we have to have some precautions for subsequent yr? Sure, for certain.”