F1: Mercedes W14 Suffers Porpoising Issues at 2023 Belgian Grand Prix

At the Belgian Grand Prix, Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton once again missed the podium. at Hungary, they lost because of a poor start from the pole position, while at Spa-Francorchamps, Hamilton's progress was slowed by the car's limits. Mercedes is still behind Red Bull despite making improvements and tweaks to their vehicle. Mercedes has struggled greatly with the porpoising issue, which results in the vehicles bouncing uncontrollably. While other teams have solved this issue, Mercedes has been slow to do so. When they reduced the vehicles' suspensions for the Spa race, the problem reemerged. George Russell, who finished sixth in the Belgian Grand Prix, rehashed a famous quote from the 2022 Formula 1 season when he said that the bouncing he experienced during qualifying had made the rest of his Spa weekend difficult. Russell said the bouncing was a factor in his finishing the weekend in sixth position, despite the fact that he had a much better showing in both the sprint race and the grand prix after struggling to find his rhythm in qualifying.

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F1: Why was Mercedes-AMG W14 Pourposing During the Belgian Grand Prix?

But the issue of W14 bouncing was brought up by George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, the latter of whom said it was a "huge amount" of trouble. Due to the sprint event restrictions, Mercedes and its F1 opponents only had the wet FP1 session to refine their vehicles, and no adjustments were available after that. Elliott adds the team will have to assess whether it was circuit-specific or connected to set-up.

Mercedes chief technical officer Mike Elliott said, "We definitely had an amount of bouncing this weekend, both drivers were telling us that and we could see it in the data."

The Mercedes team is still trying to fix the bouncing problem that plagued their vehicles during the Belgian Grand Prix, according to the team's chief technical officer Mike Elliott. Elliott said the team will have to figure out whether the issue was particular to the track or related to the car's set-up, given that the German team only had the wet FP1 session to dial in their vehicles.

"In terms of the performance, it definitely affects the performance of the cars because it affects the drivers’ ability to extract the maximum grip from the car, it affects their balance and it affects their ability to get their braking points right.", Eliot added. 

Elliott said that the drivers' choice of downforce options for their run accounted for the variation in aero improvements they brought to Spa. He assured them that they were looking into the issue and were working to find a solution as quickly as feasible.

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F1: Mercedes-AMG Belgian Grand Prix Performance

Despite Lewis Hamilton's (a seven-time world champion) positive assessment of his and Mercedes' performance in Belgium (they finished fourth), George Russell who finished sixth, was relieved when the weekend was over. At the start of the race, Max Verstappen lost five positions on the starting grid, which moved Hamilton up to fourth. After that, he was content to maintain his position in third. After Verstappen passed, the battle for the third position became between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. The Mercedes driver gave it his all, but his team chose to pit him for the quickest lap at the end of the race, dropping him to fourth place.

Russell, who had a terrible weekend, stated in an interview that the start of summer break couldn't have come at a better time. But he knew without a doubt that if the accident on the first lap hadn't happened, he would have finished higher than sixth.