Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, has told Formula1News.co.uk that it could re-introduce Technical Directive 39 (TD39/22) “at very short notice” if porpoising re-emerges as an issue this season.
TD39/22 was introduced ahead of the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix in a bid to alleviate porpoising, amid Mercedes in particular lobbying the FIA to take action, as their W13 was plagued by the phenomenon.
This technical directive saw the FIA formulate an aerodynamic oscillation metric (AOM) which is used to measure how much each car is porpoising/bouncing.
In the event of the FIA deeming a car to be “excessively oscillating”, they had the authority to prevent it from taking part in a grand prix weekend until set-up changes – such as raising the ride height – were made to alleviate the porpoising.
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Following the FIA raising the minimum ride height by 15mm ahead of the 2023 Formula 1 season, TD39/22 was reappealed.
In a statement, the FIA has emphasised to Formula1News.co.uk that they communicated their decision to scrap the technical directive with the teams, Formula 1 and Pirelli in a “timely manner.”
They also stressed that the AOM remains in place, “and we are still gathering data from this metric –but as the matter seems under control, it was stated that we will not be applying a limit in the forthcoming period.”
Continuing, the FIA revealed that the Formula 1 grid has been warned that “if the parameter worsened again, we would reintroduce it at very short notice.
“Since everything is already in place, we could restart implementation relatively quickly,” the FIA’s statement continued.
Furthermore, the FIA revealed to Formula1News.co.uk that it plans to make all technical directives – past and present – public “very soon.”
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Continuing in this vein, they explained: “To do so we need to eliminate any confidential info and private info.
“This is currently under development so you can expect something in the next few months.
“This will improve the level of access and understanding of technical rules for media and fans in the future.”
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