F1 News
Brawn sees problem with teams after Barcelona: 'That's the biggest challenge'
- GPblog.com
Many of the F1 teams were surprised by it in Barcelona. The bouncing of the car at high speeds. Normally an F1 car only bounces on bumpy tracks, like in America. In Barcelona, however, it was due to the car's aerodynamics. Causing the car to bounce up and down hard as the speed increased. Ross Brawn, F1's general manager and former team owner, knows how to work around those problems.
"We've all experienced it at some point. It's a recurring phenomenon. I was surprised that some teams didn't see it coming, because I would have expected them to take it into account after their work in the wind tunnel," Brawn explained after the test days in Barcelona at F1TV.
FIA may start helping teams
Brawn notes that, especially on Day 1, teams struggled to get the car set up correctly."You quickly saw that some of the teams found solutions. Their biggest challenge is that their solutions are likely to result in less speed." Indeed, one possible solution would be to tune the car a little less close to the ground, but this would make the speed over an entire lap significantly slower.
"That's a decision for the team to make, what's best for the car. If it's ever going to be a problem, I'm sure the FIA can come up with a solution," Brawn concluded hopefully. So the former team boss expects the porpoising to be an effect that will remain in winter testing and that by the time of the first Grands Prix, the phenomenon will have disappeared as well.