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The F1 world might just have been turned upside down with the FIA's new technical directive on porpoising. The new statement issued on "safety grounds" will prevent teams from running the car at "unsafe levels" as the FIA will monitor the G-forces F1 drivers are being subjected to. Long story short, what this means for the F1 teams is that if the cars are bouncing beyond the permissible limits, they will have to alter their setup and increase the ride height.
The obvious takeaway from this is that some teams that have a better grasp of the bouncing phenomenon will be able to run their cars lower while other teams might be forced to run their cars higher. So, with this new FIA directive, which teams are in a prime position to benefit the most, and which ones might just have a lot of head-scratching to do? Let's find out!
Winner
Red Bull
Red Bull could not have scripted it better themselves. The team was worried (and rightly so) that the FIA intervention could create a situation where the field is leveled up and Red Bull's advantage gets diminished.
With the way the FIA's technical directive is worded, however, it does mean that teams that have a better grip over porpoising will be able to benefit as they can run their cars lower than their competitors. Out of the entire grid, the team that seems to have overcome the porpoising effect the best this season is Red Bull.
If Red Bull did not already have enough advantage over its competitors, this plays right into the hands of the team. Team principal Christian Horner might just be smiling from ear to ear after the new directive that gives the FIA the authority to intervene if the cars overshoot G-force numbers.
Loser
Ferrari
It may be too early to jump to conclusions as the technical directive has not even been implemented. Mattia Binotto and Charles Leclerc, however, might just have been giving ice-cold looks to Carlos Sainz once they went through the FIA's intervention.
The Ferrari driver has been very vocal about the impact of the cars bouncing far too much and having an impact on the drivers' physical health. Concurrently, though, teams are competing in F1 to win and Ferrari is fighting for the championship this season. The F1-75, however, is also one of the worst affected by porpoising even though its drivers have been able to work over the bouncing problems.
The new directive could, in effect, force Ferrari to run the car at a higher ride height, which could impact its relative competitiveness against Red Bull. With the Italian squad already on the backfoot in the F1 championship, this technical directive certainly doesn't help the team's chances.
Winner
Aston Martin F1
Surprise surprise! The second F1 team that was touted to have the bouncing phenomenon dealt with perfectly was the team that introduced a mid-season car resembling Red Bull. Aston Martin looked very impressive in Baku and one of the reasons behind that was the AMR22B's ability to handle the bouncing phenomenon that had been a limiting factor in the previous iteration.
Many teams in the midfield suffer from porpoising to varying degrees, which is sometimes track-specific as well. This new directive might just be the last piece of the puzzle that works in Aston Martin's way as the team could rise further up the pecking order.
Loser
Mercedes
When these directives were first brought to light, it appeared as if Mercedes had shot itself in the foot big time! The German outfit has done so, to an extent. Toto Wolff's lobbying for the FIA's intervention probably did not feature an enforcement where Mercedes could in effect get singled.
Conversely, instead of penalizing teams that have shown innovative thinking and got on top of regulations, the FIA has stopped teams from running the cars at "unsafe levels". Mercedes, a team that suffered the worst from bouncing, will be forced to run at a higher ride height and ultimately lose performance. The team could even slip into the midfield group at some races like Canada this season.
One ray of hope for the Brackley-based outfit is that, while it will face a compromise on some tracks, it has made significant progress on porpoising. Tracks with a smoother surface like Barcelona could find Mercedes jump back into contention. The German team was looking for the FIA's intervention this season, but we are unsure if this was what it had in mind.
