Daniel Ricciardo says F1's 'porpoising' problem is as bad as ever and compared it to an NBA player dribbling his head

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Daniel Ricciardo says F1's 'porpoising' problem is as bad as ever and compared it to an NBA player dribbling his head
Daniel RicciardoDan Mullan/Getty Images
  • F1's new cars continue to experience extreme bouncing at high speeds, called "porpoising."
  • The Azerbaijan GP proved to be the perfect storm as the bouncing reached its worst levels.
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Formula One's "porpoising" problem is not going away anytime soon and, in fact, was worse than ever at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.

"Porpoising" — where Formula One cars start bouncing when reaching high speeds — has plagued most teams to varying degrees this season. However, McLaren Racing was one team that had seemingly avoided the issue.

That changed in Baku, where the already-bouncy street circuit that invites some of the highest speeds of the season proved to be the perfect mix of ingredients for a painful race.

After the race, Daniel Ricciardo explained how agonizing the experience was, while noting that nothing he could say would adequately describe it.

"I certainly experienced bouncing, or porpoising, bad for the first time today," Ricciardo said. "I feel very, very sorry for everybody who has experienced it all year. I can't speak badly enough about it. It's bad."

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He then compared it to feeling like somebody dribbled his head like a basketball and how he imagines a boxer might feel after a fight.

"When I got out of the car, I just felt shooken, like I just felt rattled," Ricciardo said. "I felt like I had taken a few blows. I always wanted to be a fighter, so maybe that's [how it feels]. It's not good, definitely. My feeling is like a pro basketball player, when they get the ball really low [Ricciardo imitates a basketball being dribbled very fast close to the ground], like that, I just felt like somebody is bouncing our helmet."

The bouncing was so bad, Lewis Hamilton called it "the most painful" race he had ever driven and noted he was glad it was over.

The 'porpoising' problem began with the new cars

F1 introduced new regulations for the 2022 season, changing the car's aerodynamics with hopes to increase the amount of action on the track.

The new design, however, also causes cars to bounce up and down more than expected on long straightaways. The effect makes the driver look like a porpoise moving up and down in the water.

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During preseason testing in Bahrain, we got a good look at the bouncing. An in-car view showed how much Pierre Gasly's head was bounced up and down.

At the time, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc compared it to a bumpy flight.

"It feels like turbulence on an airplane, going up and down the whole straight," Leclerc told reporters after the initial round of testing in Barcelona. "I think one of the videos that F1 posted shows this phenomenon quite well, and I can't say it feels nice. It makes you a little bit ill."

According to Laurence Edmondson of ESPN, the new cars are designed to work aerodynamically much like a plane —only instead of creating lift, as one would want in an aircraft, the new car designs generate incredible amounts of downforce, pushing the wheeled rockets closer and closer to the track.

"The length of the car is treated as an upside-down aeroplane wing with the lower surface profiled to generate low air pressure under the car and suck it to the track," Edmondson wrote.

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The aerodynamics become a problem when the car moves too close to the track and loses the downforce. When that happens, it lifts, and the downforce takes over again. The cycle then repeats and even gradually becomes more pronounced.

Here is that phenomenon visualized.

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