The FIA even released in Canada the use of an extra support on the floor of the cars, but the teams claimed that it was against the regulations. For Silverstone, therefore, no metrics or changes will be promoted to help curb porpoising
The FIA (International Automobile Federation) decided to postpone the application of the metric for determining the limits of vertical oscillations of Formula 1 cars on the track. The measure - announced to try to curb excessive porpoising in the name of driver safety - was expected to come into force as early as this weekend at Silverstone, but the organization claimed the need to collect more data to define the metric.
Before the Canadian Grand Prix, the FIA issued a new technical directive with the intention of curbing high-speed car crashes, a phenomenon that appeared in 2022 as a result of changes in the regulations - and especially the return of the ground effect. The attitude, in fact, was an immediate response to the appeal that some drivers on the grid, among them Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, made for an intervention before they suffered physical damage in the medium and long term.
The entity then announced that it would study the data collected from each team during track activities in Montreal to determine what the technical change would be to contain the porpoising. To do this, it used an accelerometer to gather the necessary information, but understood that a larger base would be needed to make any effective change.
Once implemented, the so-called Aerodynamic Oscillation Metric (AOM) could force a team to have to raise the height of the car if it is proven that excessive pitching will be harmful to the drivers - and risk being excluded from the GP if it does not comply.
In Canada, the FIA caused controversy by allowing the use of an extra support on the floor of the car to help control the jumps - and even more so Mercedes, who showed up with the apparatus already in free practice, raising suspicions from the other teams that they already had the change programmed even before it was allowed.
It turns out that the use of this support is against the technical regulations, which allow only one, and some teams in the grid have threatened to protest. Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto argued that the technical directive should only be to provide clarification on the rules, not to change them, saying that any change, even in the name of safety, would have to be approved first by the World Motor Racing Council.
Alpine was also unhappy to see Mercedes with the part in the car. Otmar Szafnauer reinforced Ferrari's opinion, saying that technical guidelines were not part of the regulations.
At the center of the controversy from the beginning, the team led by Toto Wolff decided to remove the extra support for qualifying and the race, justifying that the part did not have the desired effect. And the FIA also ruled out the use of the device during the weekend at Silverstone.