“There could be long-term damage,” Daniel Ricciardo reckons drivers can macho their way through porpoising for a short tem
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Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo, a 32-year-old McLaren Driver, encountered his first meeting with the rough jumping of the car known as porpoising. Teams like Mercedes and Ferrari were already suffering from the jumping cars since the start of the season, McLaren, at the start, didn’t have much to think about porpoising. But long straight in Baku has changed the concept for a lot of teams.
Ricciardo was one of the drivers who had a painful event after the Baku race, he spoke about it to the media and asked for some changes from the FIA. Danny Ric managed his second points finish ahead of his teammate Lando Norris on P8. It was a successful weekend for the Aussie after a lot of tough weekends to his name. But it ended up being one of the worst physical races he has had in his career.
The 32-year-old talked about being “macho” to fight the jumping of the car, but that could only be done for an individual race, not the whole season.
“Obviously, like the compression, you are sore and you feel like you are kind of getting squeezed, so it’s not good. I’m, like, stiff now and painful, but also like getting out of the car – and I’m not exaggerating – I just felt, like, shook, so just, like, a bit rattled.” Daniel said.
Also Read: “We’re closer this year,” Daniel Ricciardo takes positives from a much improved performance in Baku
Is Porpoising seriously hurting the driver?
Many drivers came out and spoke about the adverse effect of porpoising they are suffering from, Lewis Hamilton even has a fear to miss his next race after a severe back injury.
If the bouncing has no solution it can have a long-term effect on the driver’s health, thinks the McLaren driver.
“So, it’s not a normal thing, and I think also the frequency, this kind of shaking of the brain and the spine, I don’t think it’s good long-term. It’s one of those ones where we don’t want to be naive or ignorant and just tough it out when there could be some kind of long-term damage.”
So the jumping of the car is really hurting the drivers. Where the Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton agreed to the statement before, Christian Horner had some other thoughts on this topic.
Christian was asked about the porpoising part being played as an ‘act’ to raise the height of the car, he said he’d tell his drivers to “bitch as much as they could over the radio and make as big an issue out of it as they possibly could, it is part of the game”. Said Horner.
Porpoising has some solutions that have been in the history books of the sport, Active Suspension being one of them, but it is banned as of now.
Also Read: Daniel Ricciardo makes cheeky Montreal GP reference: “All my favorite races seem to start with M”
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Soham Raj Jain
(480 Articles Published)