Porpoising Issues Plague Ferrari: Sainz Explains Struggles in Barcelona Amid Performance Slump

Carlos Sainz discloses that porpoising is severely affecting Ferrari, suggesting a reason for their recent performance decline.

A theory explaining Ferrari's drop in performance emerged after the Barcelona qualifying session.

Carlos Sainz has disclosed that the bouncing issue, known as porpoising, has been impacting Ferrari during this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix in F1.

In 2022, many teams on the grid faced significant challenges with porpoising throughout most of the season due to the new regulations.

Nevertheless, as groups gradually grasped the regulations, the issue has diminished, except for this past weekend.

Ferrari claimed the third spot in terms of speed during the qualifying session, earning them the fifth and sixth positions on the starting grid.

High expectations were placed on Ferrari as the team unveiled a major upgrade package for this weekend's event.

Carlos Sainz told a group of journalists, including Crash.net, in Barcelona that Ferrari was facing significant issues with bouncing in high-speed corners.

“We’ve faced challenges throughout the weekend with the fast corners,” he mentioned. “The bouncing issue persists, making it particularly difficult to navigate the high-speed sections.”

"It’s likely that this issue is also wearing down the tires in the third sector. I’m not entirely sure. We’re now in the third year of dealing with these regulations and combating the porpoising effect in high-speed corners when there’s lateral load on the car. It’s been challenging all weekend to try and eliminate it."

"We still haven't been able to eliminate it, and now we're here at this track. You can observe that McLaren and Red Bull have no bouncing issues, and I believe they're performing well."

Similar to his fellow driver Charles Leclerc, Sainz firmly believes that the latest improvements made to the Ferrari car are functioning as planned.

"Yes, it looks like everything is functioning well," he clarified. "We're seeing a performance of three and a half tenths with all the new modifications that everyone has implemented. When we look back at Suzuka in Japan, we were around three and a half tenths to half a second slower, possibly even a bit more. So, I believe the performance is highly dependent on the specific track conditions at the moment for everyone."

Mercedes is the only team that has definitively entered the competition. Moreover, McLaren's recent upgrade in Miami has moved them from being behind us to being ahead.

"We continue to dig deeper and strive to uncover new elements. It's likely we'll need to discover something that can unlock additional performance on these medium to high-speed tracks, where factors like bouncing and ride quality remain crucial."

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