Sainz snaps back at key Ferrari engineer over vital F1 issue

Carlos Sainz has hit back at claims made by key Ferrari engineer Jock Clear over the affects of bouncing on F1 drivers. 

Aerodynamic porpoising has been a feature of the ground-effect machines introduced in 2022, and although teams have since been to get on top of the phenomenon, Ferrari has been affected by it since a Spanish GP upgrade re-introduced it to the car.

The team has been chipping away at eradicating the bouncing, with Ferrari performance engineer Clear believing modern-day drivers should just be able to cope with it, referencing how drivers in the 1990s dealt with bouncing.

However, Sainz firmly rejected this notion and felt that anyone who has not driven a ground-effect car, cannot hold a valid opinion.

"I invite anyone that says we complain too much to drive the cars and see the speed we go nowadays," Sainz told media including RacingNews365. 

"We're cornering at 300kph with the car jumping around, and people say that we are complaining too much. 

"I invite them to try the cars from 2022 onwards and see how their lower backs react. 

"Anyone who doesn't drive these cars, for me, they cannot have an opinion."

What did Clear actually say?

Sainz was responding to these comments from Clear.

"It is something that has hampered us this season, so it is an area we have had to work on, and perhaps more than others, maybe our drivers have been more vocal about it," he said. 

"You heard Lewis [Hamilton] being very vocal about it a couple of years ago, and the drivers tend to get used to all of these things. 

"Actually, if you go back as long as I can go back to the mid 1990s or even earlier, the cars used to run on the deck, they were all over the place, and the drivers got used to it. 

"Those drivers would say: 'My God, these kids of today, they ought to have driven a 1980s car, that really was rough. So the drivers get used to it.

"It is only really when they get into the nitty-gritty of where the performance comes from that they think: 'Actually, yeah, it is bouncing around too much.' 

"It is not horrific, or undrivable, or anything like that, it is quite a subtlety, but when you look at it carefully, it is an effect that we haven't modelled as well as we should have done.

"That's what we've developed this year quite well."