Porpoising explained by the architect of F1 2022's technical rules

A new word was on everyone’s lips after the first test of the radically new 2022 cars. That word was ‘porpoising’ – and actually it wasn’t that new, as the few of us still active in F1 who were also involved in the days of skirted ground effect cars remember the phenomenon well. In fact, this troublesome effect is not just historic, as anyone who has worked with contemporary LMP cars knows. Like the new generation of F1 cars, sportscars have, for some time, incorporated design features which make porpoising prevalent, and engineers of these cars know how to tame it.

But what exactly is porpoising? Many will say it is an aerodynamic effect, but that is only partly true. It is a fact that we only see porpoising when there is an element of ground effect aerodynamics in use, but F1 cars have been running in ground effect for many years. The front wing, for example, is significantly influenced by ground effect and, prior to the advent of high-rake cars over the last 10 years or so, it was common practice to run a set-up that stalled the diffuser at the low rideheights associated with high speeds in order to reduce drag.