Porpoising. Ground Effect. Vortexes. What F1’s new terms mean ahead of the start of the 2022 season in Bahrain
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Updated 12/03/2022 at 12:50 GMT
F1’s new regulations for the 2022 season have thrown up some unexpected challenges for the teams already. Chief among them is ‘porpoising’, the ungainly bouncing that all teams are contending with. It is set to shake up this season’s racing, but what does it look like and how are teams trying to tackle it?
Carlos Sainz of Spain driving (55) the Ferrari F1-75 on track during Day Three of F1 Testing at Bahrain International Circuit on March 12, 2022 in Bahrain, Bahrain.
Image credit: Getty Images
F1’s raft of rule changes has meant a host of new terminology for the sport’s fans to contend with. From porpoising to ground effect, here are some of the key components added to the glossary from the final days of testing.
What is ‘porpoising’?
The resounding images of testing ahead of the 2022 F1 season are the bobbing heads of drivers contending with their cars bouncing up and down beneath them.
Akin to the nominal porpoise breaking the water then diving below it, cars at all speeds are nodding and jumping on the straights.
With time on the track limited, tweaks to wrangle the most from their engines have been forfeited to stop the wobble. The solution at Barcelona was to go slower, and Mercedes continued this philosophy into the final session in Bahrain - not particularly viable for a team pushing for the championship.
Extensive work in the simulations and time in the wind tunnels failed to expose the phenomenon so teams were left reeling to see their creations juddering around the track.
An F1 car is never a comfortable place to be. The extreme low-slung seat, unforgiving suspension and cornering forces make it difficult to maintain a consistent head position. Drivers can be subject to up six g of force, making their bodies weigh up to six times as much.
But the new effect is putting the drivers’ heads and necks under even more strain, with reports of headaches already starting to emerge.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz said: “It doesn’t feel great, especially when you think that we’re doing 300 kmh and we’re jumping 30-40mm up and down like crazy. Annoying. It’s quite on the limit. You have to trust the engineers and everyone around you that it’s just going to keep getting better, as we learn these ground effect cars.”
I can’t say it feels nice. It makes you a little bit ill, but it’s okay.
“It feels like turbulence on an aeroplane, going up and down the whole straight,” said Sainz’s team-mate Charles Leclerc. “I can’t say it feels nice. It makes you a little bit ill, but it’s okay.”
What is ground effect?
Quite simply it is the reason that porpoising rears (then quickly lowers) its ugly head.
Ground effect is an added layer of aerodynamic wizardry that helps the cars stick to the ground, improving grip and cornering speed.
Teams can manipulate the air flowing under the car, sucking it to the road by creating a vacuum under the redesigned floors.
2022 is the first time teams can use ground effects since the 1980s after it was banned. The sudden loss of downforce that came when the ground effect failed - with a bump, a nudge or a rough piece of track - led to drivers losing control and sometimes hurtling off the track.
But with ever-cleverer aerodynamics on the top of the car in the form of big wings and spoilers, the danger is reduced. But teams are no less obsessed.
Instead of the dramatic loss of grip that forced 1980s drivers off the track, modern cars suffer porpoising as the cars are sucked into the track, lose the effect and pop back up, then are sucked back down again - all in rapid succession.
What are Vortexes?
The last pieces of the porpoise puzzle are the currents of air that help suck the car to the road.
All down the sides of the car are intricate flaps and fins that force air into little spirals that create and trap the vacuum under the car.
When those vortices are working properly they ‘seal’ the edges of the car. But the teams are finding that track surfaces are not quite as perfect as they would have liked, and the lumps and bumps are messing with their calculations.
Mercedes have slackened off their ride height to try to negate the problem of porpoising and Red Bull have restructured the whole sidepod since the first testing days in Barcelona. But if teams can’t smooth out the bumps, the ungainly look of F1’s current crop of cars at top speed is set to continue.
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