Does rule change end porpoising in 2023? 'It will cost performance'

The livery of the Haas VF-23 has already been revealed to the public, but the F1 team has only now shown the real new 2023 car. On Saturday, the VF-23 was tested by Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen at Silverstone. Technical head Simone Resta says that with the new cars, porpoising should be omitted and he talks about the changes to the new car.

Porpoising a thing of the past in 2023?

Halfway through the 2022 F1 season, the FIA came out with a Technical Directive. This small rule change was a minor intervention by the umbrella body to help those teams that were very troubled by porpoising. A bigger rule change has been made for the 2023 technical regulations, which should make it easier for all teams to cope with porpoising problems. Resta, technical chief at Haas, says it looks good.

Autohebdo.fr quotes the Italian: "The floor has been heavily modified and will be the biggest change in terms of technical regulations. It is meant to solve the porpoising problem. I think it will cost everyone some performance, but all teams have learned so much since the start of last season that I think with these new cars all the teams will have a lot less trouble with porpoising."

Haas will continue to develop this season though

Haas' big pitfall in 2022 was that the team had no plan and no budget to further develop the car. The car Haas had at the end of 2022 was the same car as at the start of the year, apart from a few minor changes. Logically, the team's performance relative to its competitors plummeted. This year, Resta says the team will continue to develop. After all, there is budget and a plan this year.

The-Race.com spoke to Resta after the unveiling of the car. The Italian said the biggest aim of the 2023 project was to build a car that can be developed: "We will definitely develop further. We have a stronger programme than last year in terms of upgrades. We are still working on it, we are only at the beginning. The launch car is just finished, so the team is still working on it. We already have our roadmap, but it is still very early to say exactly what we are going to do."