“It has had the opposite outcome,” Helmut Marko believes Mercedes’ antics have ‘backfired’ after FIA’s intervention to cure porpoising


“It has had the opposite outcome,” Helmut Marko believes Mercedes’ antics have ‘backfired’ after FIA’s intervention to cure porpoising

Red Bull's Helmut Marko & Mercedes W13

Helmut Marko and Red Bull have had all the answers as far as porpoising is concerned but it hasn’t been the easiest of task for other teams to come to terms with this problem. Mercedes, in particular, has struggled to the extent that they have had to ask the FIA to intervene to prevent injuries to Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. The row over porpoising took another turn when FIA did decide to intervene ahead of the Canadian GP.

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Things got serious when Lewis Hamilton was seen hobbling after the Azerbaijan GP which raised a lot of questions around the safety of these cars. Mercedes didn’t waste any time to protect its driver and asked the FIA to look into the matter and take necessary steps, which was not taken well by the other teams. There have been widespread protests as teams like Red Bull and Ferrari feel all their hard work is being undone.

All the teams since last year have been working under a budget cap which means all of them have exactly the same resources. Therefore, prima facie, it sounds unfair to help out a team in the middle of a season just because it wants to go faster and isn’t able to protect its drivers at the same time. This has been the complaints of most of the teams who feel the intervention is illegal.

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Helmut Marko reckons FIA’s intervention to cure porpoising will hurt Mercedes in the long run

Red Bull Racing advisor Helmut Marko
Red Bull Racing advisor Helmut Marko

Despite all of this, Helmut Marko believes that this intervention will hurt Mercedes in the long run. In a recent interview, he revealed, “Mercedes’ efforts to get the FIA involved has had the opposite outcome to what the German car manufacturer wanted.”

“FIA threat in forcing teams suffering the worst to lift their cars was exactly what could hurt Mercedes the most.”

It can’t be the FIA who is making our set-ups. Changing the ride height means changing the set-up and the FIA can’t do that. My next point is that all of this is the result of one team having problems.

“That team should just sort out their own problems and not affect the other teams,” as reported by motorsport.

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We understand the fact that since the drivers are the stars of the show, it’s important to protect them but at the same time it’s important to not be unfair on the other teams. FIA needs to find the right balance.

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