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Charles Leclerc says ’porpoising' or the violent bouncing of F1 cars at high speeds is the biggest challenge teams are facing with F1’s new regulations. Speaking to the media following Friday's Free Practice 2 in Bahrain, the Monegasque said:
“Bouncing I think will be the biggest challenge, especially for the race. It depends a lot on the conditions also from where the wind is coming from. The race is quite long, so it is going to be pretty bumpy.”
Charles Leclerc’s assessment was supported by Mick Schumacher, who believes the issue could have a major impact on teams’ performance at the Bahrain GP and much of the season going forward. Speaking after his fellow Ferrari stablemate, Schumacher said:
“There are some fundamental problems right now which are obviously bouncing which I expect to be part of this season across so I guess that there’s still something to be worked on. I’m sure that the teams are working on quite hard for next year in general and I wouldn’t know how many races we will need for the other problems but definitely bouncing will stay.”
Adapting to 2022 cars helped by Ferrari’s different approach: Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc said a slightly different approach employed by Ferrari in 2022 helped both himself and teammate Carlos Sainz quickly get up to speed with the new cars and adapt their driving styles.
Leclerc believes the relative stability across testing, afforded by a lack of major and disruptive upgrades, helped them get to know the car better ahead of the season opener in Bahrain. Speaking at the FIA press conference ahead of the Bahrain GP, he said:
“With Ferrari, we’ve had a bit of a different approach this year staying with the same car from the first test to the second test, which helped us to know the package very well. So hopefully, it will give us a bit of an advantage at the beginning and then for us drivers I think we’ll all be quite quick to adapt to those to those new cars.”
Despite not bringing any major upgrades to the F1-75 since its track debut, Ferrari has nevertheless looked impressive across testing and in Bahrain. While both the Scuderia drivers have been in impressive form, Leclerc is a favorite for the pole ahead of qualifying.
