Lewis Hamilton’s back has taken a beating due to the violent porpoising experienced this past weekend in Azerbaijan. Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images.
As always, last weekend’s Grand Prix of Baku, Azerbaijan, produced surprising results, with multiple retirements and pit stops exceeding five seconds.
A bizarre weekend, but Baku always seems to produce them.
An incident that intrigued me was that concerning the Mercedes W13 and its effect on Lewis Hamilton due to uncontrollable “porpoising” – a phenomenon I wrote about after initial testing in Barcelona last March.
Many of the teams appear to have placated the violent movement but very few have found an absolute cure. Mercedes face continuing issues, particularly when track surfaces are undulating as witnessed in Monaco and Baku.
During Friday’s practice sessions, Hamilton complained of a sore back and during the race his on-board camera clearly showed the incredible amount of head movement experienced by the Englishman, particularly on the long main straight.
Hamilton was heard to cry “Argh, my back is killing me!” during the race and in parc ferme was filmed, at length, as he tried to extricate himself from his car and make his way to the post-race facility.
He was later quoted as saying. “Happy it’s over. Sore. That was the most painful race I’ve experienced, the toughest race I’ve experienced.”
Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff said: “Lewis, we all know this is a bit of a sh*tbox to drive at the moment, I’m sorry for the back also, we will sort ourselves out.”
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He commented later he feels Hamilton’s condition may force the seven-time champion out of this coming weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, the Montreal circuit, renowned for its challenging surface.
It is difficult to understand the difference in ride between the W13 and the Red Bull RB18, regarding ground clearance.
Running closer to the ground is making the Mercedes situation worse when hitting the bumps, but the RB18 is regularly televised with sparks showering from the skid plates on the underside of the car, with no apparent issues for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
Perhaps Hamilton and Wolff indicated, post-race it is more than ride height for the W13.
Hamilton is quoted as saying: “Honestly George (Russell) didn’t have the same bounce I had, he had a lot less bouncing. Yesterday I lost three to five tenths to him on the straights.
“I had an experimental part on my car, and the different rear suspension. Ultimately it is the wrong one, Hamilton concluded.
After qualifying Wolff revealed: “Lewis has been trying some experimental parts and there was a different floor solution on his car that didn’t work.
“The car was porpoising more and bottoming-out to the point that it became dangerous and then he couldn’t extract the performance. So yes, it was a different spec.”
Could these experimental changes be the reason? Many F1 engineering sites seem to agree it is beyond just aerodynamics, some suggesting suspension issues could be the real issue.
Grand Prix Drivers Association Director, Hamilton’s team-mate Russell, believes porpoising is an accident waiting to happen referring to it as “a recipe for disaster”.
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