Aston Martin moves F1 floor stay to help with porpoising problems

The Silverstone-based team has found itself on the back foot this season, with the performance of its AMR22 being compromised badly by the extent to which it is bouncing on the straights.

Chief technical officer Andrew Green explained at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix that it was having to raise its ride height so much to stop the porpoising that it was costing it up to 0.75 seconds per lap.

It is now the only team that has not scored points this season, and it is still chasing solutions that can help its cause.

The team thinks that a number of factors are coming together to cause so much trouble with the bouncing, with floor flexing one of them.

Ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Aston has tweaked the position of its floor stay to help shift the area that is strengthened.

The team explained: "The lower location has moved forwards to stiffen that part of floor and minimise deflection to reduce ground contact."

Lance Stroll reckoned that Aston Martin was being hurt more from porpoising than some other teams because its floor appears to be more fragile – so it is reluctant to run as low as some competitors.

"The lower you can run these cars, the better they are for downforce - but then there's this porpoising," explained the Canadian.

Aston Martin AMR22 floor comparison

Photo by: Motorsport Images

"So it's been pretty bad for us on some occasions. Generally, I think we've been limited with the floor breaking.

"So we have to kind of watch how much we porpoise for those reasons.

"It looks like the Ferraris and Mercedes can porpoise more than us, so I guess maybe they have a floor that is more robust and isn't as fragile as ours, potentially."

As well as the change to the floor stay, Aston Martin has reverted to its season opening spec of halo-mounted vane and mirror sidepod stay. The team believes the solution is better for the higher-downforce requirements of the Imola circuit.