Several drivers are complaining about fish-tailing in the latest reworked curve in Barcelona
McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes drivers complained about dolphin behavior during free practice sessions this Friday. A phenomenon that worries Andrea Stella, team principal of the Woking crew.
Is the dolphin-ing back to play tricks on pilots? Several of them have indeed complained about severe bouncing in the last turn of the Barcelona circuit, specifically the one that has been redesigned to return to its original layout and now offers a high-speed passage.
Lando Norris is one of the drivers affected by this mishap during Free Practice 1, as well as Max Verstappen and George Russell during the second session of the day.
Towards performance limitations?
This phenomenon worries Andrea Stella, team manager at McLaren. “The fact that we heard the same thing from Red Bull as well indicates that it could be a specific element of the track that all teams may have to deal with,” he said in a press conference on Friday.
George Russell also complained about porpoising, indicating to his team “a lot of bouncing in the last turn.” According to Andrea Stella, this could endanger the race or tomorrow’s qualifying session. “We also understand that Mercedes had to deal with this according to the comments. It could be performance limitations because to address it, adjustments need to be made that could cost performance elsewhere,” he warns.
