10 NAIL THE FLOOR CHANGES AIMED AT ELIMINATING PORPOISING
For 2023, floors will be required to be 15mm higher, in addition to edges being stiffened and diffuser designs tweaked. This is part of the FIA’S solution to eliminate the porpoising problem that plagued the championship at the start of its new era.
The teams were always going to get the bouncing under control, but the time it took to do so exposed the drivers to unsafe conditions and risked injury, which the FIA hopes the 2023 changes will fully address. This will go alongside the requirement for a stiffer underfloor plank and skids introduced in the controversial summer technical directive that finally came into force at Spa in late August.
Red Bull has barely been troubled by porpoising, while the Ferraris were still suffering from it to a near-comical degree deep into the season. Unlike Mercedes, this wasn’t at the cost of performance.
Ferrari insists that there were not“any specific impacts on our team”, according to Mekies, regarding the Spa directive after the team had made the changes to remain within the new requirements. But there are suggestions to the contrary, with Ferrari’s race pace notably suffering from Hungary onwards – right when it would have been preparing for the Spa alterations.
Either way, getting the new floor rules right could provide Ferrari with the boost it needs to get back on terms and edge ahead of Red Bull next year. Remember, that’s exactly what Verstappen’s squad did against Mercedes in 2021…
That potential, of course, adds pressure, but Ferrari has soaked this up throughout 2022. Now it needs to show that it can make the changes required to step forward again. This is all while Binotto and co must continue with the progress on team culture they have made since 2018.
The worst thing for Ferrari would be to convert its 2022 humbling into a culture of fear, so remembering its high points from this year and building from those foundations will be critical to grabbing future and lasting success.