‘My wife says size doesn’t matter’: Christian Horner cracks a bold joke on FIA’s revised porpoising regulations
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Christian Horner
There has been a large row over the porpoising directives and regulations for quite a while. While the technical directive will go into effect this weekend, seeking to create a limit for the amount of acceptable ‘vertical oscillations’, the regulations will obviously go into effect from 2023.
Most teams have had some amount of porpoising this year, two of the top three have had it quite a bit – Ferrari and Mercedes. While for Ferrari, it never seemed to affect the performance component, it was claimed that the porpoising, bouncing, or any vertical oscillations, did in fact affect the performance of the W13. There was a lot of lobbying for relief from the bouncing, especially from Mercedes.
The proposal to decrease the porpoising for next year was to raise the floor edges. While the originally proposed limit was 25mm, it was eventually negotiated down to 15mm. Christian Horner had always been very vocal in his opposition to the technical directive and regulation changes, even implying that they were solely to help Mercedes. While he has come to terms with it, it’s obvious he isn’t pleased.
Christian Horner: ‘It’s the same for everybody’
Red Bull have rarely ever had any ‘vertical oscillation’ issues with their car, and it is unlikely their performance will be taking a large hit from the new regulations. As reported by GPFans, Horner jested about the regulation changes, saying: “My wife often tells me that size doesn’t matter so I’m not going to get too fussed about 10mm.”
Horner strongly impressed that the limit was the same for every team: “25 versus 15 is – we’ve got to live with it and it is what it is. It’s inconvenient to be announcing it at this time of year, it’s incredibly late but it’s the same for everybody. We ended up negotiating on a number and we ended up at a number that…it’s the same for everybody.”
The FIA also revealed some more details about the new technical regulations that will go into force in 2026, when Formula 1 is set to start using 100% sustainable fuels, with Horner commenting: “It was extremely important to get clarification of exactly what those rules are going to be for 2026.“
“Whilst it seems a long way away, it is effectively tomorrow in engine terms so there has been a lot of toing and froing over these regulations because it is not just the technical specification, it is the sporting regulations and the introduction of the financial regulations.”
Christian Horner was pleased with the regulations being released, as Red Bull now know what they are designing their engine to the exact terms, concluding by saying that it is good to have clarity for 2026.
Also Read: Christian Horner sees Mercedes and Ferrari ‘coming back at Red Bull’ during second leg of 2022
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Aniket Tripathi
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