F1 team principals complain about timing of FIA's technical directive after Mercedes reveals surprise second stay on its cars

Multiple F1 team bosses have expressed their displeasure at the timing of the FIA’s technical directive that addresses porpoising. Particularly since it came right after when Mercedes surprised the paddock by installing a second floor stay on their cars.

Since the technical directive was issued on Thursday, none of the teams—apart from Mercedes—were able to react in time to take advantage of the new allowances. This was mainly attributed to how most teams had their staff flown over to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix at the time.

Teams were generally upset. Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer even went so far as to suggest that if Mercedes chose to run those additional stays during competitive sessions in Montreal, they might lodge a protest with the FIA. Speaking ahead of qualifying, he said:

“The technical directive came out when our chief technical officer was flying over, and we aren't able to produce a stay here. And as far as the process goes, it's a technical directive. And technical directives, as we all know, aren't regulations."

It is unclear how the German team managed to react so quickly and produce new stays, but it was apparent that most of its rivals were displeased with the second stay.

Szafnauer added:

“So, it could very well be that we shouldn't be running this in qualifying, in the race. And if teams have brought those stays, I would imagine they could be, perhaps, looked at after and then protested.”

F1 team bosses from Aston Martin, McLaren, Alpha Tauri, and more, echoed Szafnauer’s views and felt that the timing of the directive was inconvenient for most teams.

Meanwhile, a few others, such as Alfa Romeo team principal Fred Vasseur, felt that issuing a technical directive to cure porpoising was not the right approach. Speaking at the FIA press conference, Vassuer said:

“I'm not sure that to introduce a new technical directive that it's the right way to do it, honestly, that we will have again new things, to manage, to police, to control and to complicate again the regulations.”

The directive might be unfair to F1 teams that have already solved porpoising

The Alpine A522 is one of the few cars on the F1 grid that seems to be least affected by porpoising. The team spent a significant amount of time strengthening the car’s floor to dial out bouncing, but also took on additional weight as a result.

Now that the FIA is essentially rescuing the teams that are most affected by the problem, Alpine believes they are being disadvantaged. Ahead of the Canadian GP, Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer said:

“We've chosen to stiffen the floor in that area at the expense of weight. And as we all discuss, there's some cars that are still overweight. And that's a trade-off decision you make between adding weight to the car so you can stiffen the floor.”

F1 teams have struggled to keep their cars below the maximum weight regulations this season. Given how the increased weight on the Alpine is likely to cost the team a lot of performance, the only solution seems to be to spend more money on developing a new solution.