Has F1's porpoising problem been eradicated in the 2023 cars?

The Ferrari flashed through, climbing the hill left-to-right under pitch black skies. Sparks flew from its floor, its rear end bucking, bouncing. Porpoising?

The buzzword of the 2022 campaign was out again on the first day of 2023 pre-season testing, which got under way in Bahrain on Thursday. Just as Max Verstappen and Red Bull led the way in the times, still there was interest in the aerodynamic phenomenon that rather blighted the first season of Formula 1’s return to running ground-effects cars. And it was a fair question – had the minor rule revisions that raised rear floor edge heights by 15mm and elevated diffuser throats by 10mm finally eliminated porpoising for good?

Autosport decides that a wander down to the end of the main straight as soon as the morning action gets going will be a good place to begin to find out. As ever on the first day of testing, there was a risk that early reliability gremlins might trigger a series of red flags, but it seems the considerable shakedown and filming day work conducted by the teams had paid off in this regard.

Not that it lessens our frustration when the Aston Martin AMR23 with Felipe Drugovich aboard stops with a sensor problem triggered by an electrical issue and forces a 20-minute delay during the opening half-hour…

Not to matter, once again George Russell leads the pack out of the pits – the Mercedes driver having done likewise when the pitlane first opened at 10am local time. This was a possible statement of intent from a team trying to banish rumours of a tricky Silverstone shakedown and targeting keeping one of the few things the W13 had that was good – solid reliability – in the new W14. With 152 laps racked up on day one, things look good in that regard for the returning Black Arrows.

Russell passed the avoiding porpoising test with flying colours

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Standing just past the pit exit, we assess the ride quality of the new machines as they flash by. Given its problems last year that were only really revealed in Bahrain, we’re particularly interested in how the Mercedes is faring from the off and things look very stable running most of the way down the main straight in Russell’s hands. This is the case for Ferrari, Red Bull, Alpine and Williams too during our time in the morning sun.

But, when the cars reach exactly opposite our vantage point, all is not totally well. All the cars are striking a big bump in the asphalt and then bouncing down to the Turn 1 hairpin approach. Those that appear to be riding very low and stiff even from the off – the Red Bull and Alpine – have rear surfaces smoking and sparking away as a result.

The Mercedes looks fine, but the Ferrari is indeed bouncing. Not much, but enough to see with the naked eye, let alone for F1’s fleet of trackside cameras. We therefore head back to the paddock to confirm what we were seeing is being corroborated by the teams.

“We had a little bit of movement in Turn 12, the faster one. But not to anywhere close to the degree that we had last year” Toto Wolff

A source at one suggests the main straight bump was causing such initial alarm that a full porpoising return was a brief concern, before it was confirmed the asphalt ripple is the trigger and not flexing floors shedding downforce at peak load. That bump has long been a feature of the Bahrain layout, but appears to be more severe than before – the extent of its impact of course exacerbated by the extremely low rides of ground-effects machines.

Now for an on-the-record assessment. What have new Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff seen of porpoising on their new machines? When Autosport asks this in the lunchbreak press conference, Wolff replies: “No, we haven’t seen any bouncing. We had a little bit of movement in Turn 12, the faster one. But not to anywhere close to the degree that we had last year and at that stage not performance limited.”

PLUS: What we learned on day one of F1 testing in Bahrain

“Same for us,” says Vasseur. “That it’s not at all as it was one year ago with the car bouncing like a kangaroo! Today we have some parts of the track – before Turn 1, Turn 12 – it’s a bit more bumpy than it was before. But it’s a different issue.”

Well, that’s Autosport’s afternoon plan sorted then – head out and see what is indeed going on at Turn 12, the super-fast right-hander at the very end of the track’s second sector. It will be a useful exercise for our porpoising investigation anyway – after all, it was through these sweeping turns at this test in 2022 that the Mercedes W13 was bouncing so badly its drivers were struggling to keep their feet pinned to the throttle pedal.

One year ago, Mercedes was desperately struggling with porpoising

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

In 2023, once the sun has set and we aren’t risking our ridiculously fair skin burning even in what is not (for Bahrain) particularly fierce heat, we climb from the paddock to the corner in question, and see that things are very different for Mercedes.

Other than a few occasional cautious lifts on entry when the wind picks up ahead of the final hour of Thursday’s running – the gusts coming strongly down the main straight as a tailwind and so here are hitting the cars as an unpredictable crosswind around the rocky rise at our backs – Lewis Hamilton isn’t having much drama. The W14, along with the Williams FW45 with Logan Sargeant driving, is among the most planted through this section.

But no car is looking rock solid thanks to a big track bump sitting just past the corner entry that is unsettling the rears in much the same way as the one ahead of Turn 1 – only this time it adds the extra risk of running wide over the Turn 12 exit kerbs and triggering more oscillating.

Here the Charles Leclerc-piloted Ferrari is bouncing most dramatically, followed in such stakes by the McLaren (driven by Lando Norris) and Aston Martin – now with Fernando Alonso inside. Again, the Red Bull and Esteban Ocon’s Alpine are sparking as they strike the ground, as does the AlphaTauri, with Nyck de Vries getting his first official F1 test milage during this twilight running. But the Ferrari does so even more than the rest…

But this isn’t all that alarming. After all, even with much more severe bouncing and porpoising impacting the F1-75, that package was still last season’s second-quickest car and a title contender during 2022’s early stages. Plus, underpinning all of this is the fact no team is seriously gunning it on performance runs on 2023’s opening day.

And there’s one more aspect to remember when asking if F1 has finally eradicated its porpoising problem – that’s if a team makes a mistake on ride height or suspension settings it can easily move back into the territory that really causes the issue. The trick will be chasing the balance of good ride without shedding downforce that Red Bull so nailed in 2022.

With that in mind, AlphaTauri technical director Jody Egginton sums things up best, when he says “we remain concerned about it”. “Or it’s an ‘awareness’ [porpoising can still occur],” Egginton concludes. “We haven’t seen anything so far.

Alpine was one of the cars to noticeably spark and strike the ground

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“But we have to keep an awareness there because I’m sure it’s lurking one way or another to some extent or another. The regulation changes that have been made certainly shouldn’t worsen it, but it’s still there and you’ve got to keep an eye on it as part of your development strategy and not put yourself into a corner where you’re having to lose a big chunk of performance to eradicate it. It’s very much a phrase that’s on our minds – especially in the aero department.

“We had porpoising last year probably in line with the grid average. The changes were made for the right reasons and we supported them. Had they not made the changes, I guess it would’ve been a little bit more difficult and we’d have been fighting the same challenges.

“As it is so far, it’s probably provided some easing of the porpoising situation. And certainly lifting the floor edges probably helped from a kerbing or general wear perspective. So, it’s all for the greater good, I think.”

Porpoising may have disappeared for now, but AlphaTauri's Egginton says teams are still wary

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images