Max Verstappen, who currenly leads the driver standings, on Friday said that he is disappointed by FIA’s intervention on the porpoising problems teams are facing this season. The Red Bull driver further took a swipe at rivals Mercedes, calling them one team that ‘is complaining a lot’. 

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Red Bull and Verstappen have not been majorly affected by purpoising, which is an aerodynamic phenomenon causing cars to  gain and lose downforce from the ground-effect beneath the floor. In simple terms, purpoising causes the cars to ungainly bounce. 

Teams like Mercedes and Ferrari have raised the issue since the past few weeks, citing purpoising as one reason for their failure. Drivers have spoken about the phenomenon’s impact on their health. 

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The FIA on Thursday announced that it was intervening with a series of steps on medical grounds to prevent or eliminate porpoising and excessive bouncing. Now, it is not possibly to conclude whether Mercedes or Ferrari will benefit from the sporting body’s intervention, but Verstappen is surely unhappy. 

“I think it’s a bit disappointing that again there is a rule change mid-season, I would say. It’s not about affecting us more or less than other teams, but it shouldn’t be that one team is complaining a lot and suddenly then they change the ‘regs’ around it. I think there are a lot of teams that actually did an amazing job to not have these kind of issues, so it is possible to drive around it,” he took a dig at Mercedes. 

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“If you raise your car then you won’t have these issues, but you lose performance,” the reigning world champion added, as quoted by Racer.

“But if you can’t design the car properly for that — then that’s your fault. It’s not the regs fault. So, for me it’s a bit of a shame.”

Drivers who have complained of long-term health consequences of porpoising include Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo.