Mercedes gets support for porpoising: 'Let's fix it'

In the spring, the FIA came up with measures to get the problems with porpoising out of Formula 1. While Mercedes was very much in favour of finding solutions, many teams were critical of the organisation's plan. James Key is behind Mercedes, he told The Race.

It is not surprising that Mercedes is happy with the FIA's plans. The German team has had a lot of problems this season with the bouncing of the car, which has had a negative effect on the performances of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

According to Key, however, the safety of the sport should be the main concern and the FIA should therefore ensure that porpoising is greatly reduced. He hopes the organisation will take drastic action in the coming period. As an example he takes the introduction of the halo.

"You remember all the comments of ‘it looks terrible’, it’s not Formula 1’. All this stuff," the McLaren technical director recalls. "And now look at a few years later that we’ve had it, how thankful we are, where we’ve seen some of the things that are happening on track."

Key understands that the two issues cannot be fully compared. "This is a different order of magnitude entirely," he agrees. "But it’s kind of a similar thing. So, let’s just go and fix it. On the basis that it does have risk, it doesn’t bring anything to the sport."