Red Bull stroke of luck is exactly what Mercedes need to solve Hamilton and Russell issues

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Red Bull may have accidentally stumbled across the solution to the issue of proposing during the first days of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Barcelona prior to the beginning of the 2022 season. Porpoising – the violent bouncing motion of the car on its suspension seen mainly on the straights – has derailed the new designs of plenty of cars amid the new regulations.

Porpoising occurs when the airflow through the underbody venturi tunnels, which pulls the car to the ground, stalls. The issue has affected many cars across the grid, and it continues to hurt octuple world champions Mercedes. 

While teams like Mercedes and to a lesser extent Ferrari are bouncing all over the track, Red Bull appear to have solved the issue. While Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have other problems regarding the engine leading to alarming DNFs, the Milton Keynes-based outfit are not suffering from porpoising – and it appears to be due to some luck, according to Auto Motor und Sport.

The new Red Bull car – the RB18 – was looking to fight for race wins at the top of the grid and it appears competitive enough to do so, largely because porpoising stopped being an issue on the final day of testing in Bahrain. Red Bull managed to get rid of its bouncing with a big upgrade, bringing in a newly-designed underbody and side boxes. 

With aerodynamic guru Adrian Newey at the helm, Red Bull suddenly found themselves three-quarters of a second faster with the upgrade. It is assumed around the paddock that the team escaped the porpoising issue by accident. 

When stationary, the Red Bull sits relatively high at the rear but the strong flying sparks suggest that the car lowers with increasing speed without starting to rock. It shows that Red Bull solved an issue that other teams – including their rivals at Mercedes – are still struggling to overcome after three Grands Prix.

The Silver Arrows have been the most vocal victims of porpoising as they, along with Aston Martin and Williams, require a low vehicle height and hard chassis to be fast. Some cars drive up to 40 millimetres higher than expected, which leads to more than a second of lost time. 

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To compensate for lost time, larger wings have been added to dramatically increase drag, which explains why Mercedes are so much slower than their rivals on the straights. Remarkably, it is something of a coincidence that the struggling teams are each powered by Mercedes engines.

However, there are others on the grid – Ferrari, Alpine, Haas and Alfa Romeo – who are faster with greater ground clearance and suspension travel due to their design. 

The 22-race F1 2022 campaign – which is expected to return to a record 23 races in the near future once a Russian Grand Prix replacement is found – continues with the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on April 24.

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