Magnussen: 'F1 teams can solve porpoising if they really want to'

Haas will bring an update package to Spa-Francorchamps, much to the delight of Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher. The drivers hope to finish more often in the points with the improved VF-22, which according to Magnussen, like other Formula 1 cars, had to sacrifice performance to cope with porpoising.

Haas also started the 2022 F1 season with the well-known porpoising problems. Most teams got to grips with the problem after a few races, but Mercedes continued to struggle with a bouncing W13. Toto Wolff's team therefore lobbied the FIA fanatically for a universal solution, and did so successfully. This to the displeasure of a number of teams who solved the problem on their own.

Haas had to sacrifice performance to fix porpoising

Magnussen, too, believes that porpoising is a problem that every F1 team can solve on its own, if the will is there. "I do think it's something that teams can solve if they really want to," the Dane said in a Haas press release. "But it does come at a cost performance-wise but we’ve done that and many other teams have done it, so the teams who haven’t done it yet will have to."

The Haas driver stressed that solving porpoising had cost some performance initially, but that his team had gradually managed to rebuild that performance without the problem returning. At Spa-Francorchamps, Magnussen and Schumacher hope to improve further with the update package announced by Guenther Steiner that awaits the drivers.