“The FIA must avoid an NFL situation”: Toto Wolff raises safety concerns against porpoising 


“The FIA must avoid an NFL situation”: Toto Wolff raises safety concerns against porpoising 

Toto Wolff

The FIA’s decisions regarding porpoising have been the most debated topic of the current 2022 season of Formula 1 so far, and there have been a lot of arguments from both sides so far. While teams like Mercedes, who were not able to crack the solution to porpoising, urged the FIA to take urgent actions after their drivers suffered because of the constant bouncing of their cars, there are also teams like Red Bull. Red Bull had solved their porpoising issue early on in the season, and they did not want the FIA to curb porpoising, as that would mean their advantage would be taken away.

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But Mercedes Boss Toto Wolff has stayed afixed to his decision that the FIA must take actions against porpoising, and he recently commented on the same. He gave the analogy of NFL, and said that the FIA should not risk having an “NFL situation” in Formula 1 by ignoring the potential safety concerns that the teamd have had with the impact of porpoising on their drivers. Now that we are nearing the 2023 season, the FIA have set out to check porpoising on the cars for next year, and Wolff supports that decision.

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Toto Wolff believes the FIA should not risk driver safety by ignoring porpoising 

Toto Wolff
Toto Wolff

While many teams are of the opinion that the FIA should not intervene in the issue of porpoising, a number of drivers have raised their voice against the safety issues that come with porpoising. One of the foremost teams which called on the FIA to give some decision regarding the curbing of porpoising, Mercedes, suffered the biggest impact due to the problem during their race at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. 

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Since then, they had been urging FIA to take some actions and their plea was answered in the form of a technical directive. The FIA issued their decision on what they would do about porpoising as a TD, which came right before the Canadian Grand Prix.

Speaking on the need for such action from the FIA regarding porpoising, Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff said, “It’s very simple: we have always said we can either do nothing, or do the right thing. 

We have, and FIA has, you can ask them, medical analysis, that frequencies of one or two hertz over several minutes can lead to long term brain damage. We have six to seven hertz over several hours.

It’s a medical question that needs to be answered. The FIA says it doesn’t want to have an NFL situation.” Thus, Toto Wolff has raised all the questions regarding the safety of the drivers when it comes to porpoising, and he urged the FIA to address these concerns at the earliest. 

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