Lewis Hamilton has been left with egg on his face after hitting out at F1 previously for changes made to ensure more competition across the board in the sport. Recent records may have shown that F1 were correct to implement their alterations, despite protests from the Mercedes man.
The FIA introduced new rules for the 2022 season which were one of the biggest technical changes in the sport’s history, as a focus on ground-effect floor moved away from over-body downforce. The move was aimed to reduce the amount of ‘dirty air’ produced by cars and shift the aerodynamic focus away from the wings to underneath the car, but it did not arrive without some serious disadvantages.
Porpoising was introduced and became a big part of last season, as many drivers were seen bouncing heavily during straights and it became a safety concern for the governing body – Hamilton himself could be seen struggling to get out of his car in Baku as he limped back to the paddock.
Mandatory floor changes for 2023 were brought in an attempt to curb porpoising, which have been successful, but many of the previous year’s alterations have also been eradicated in the process. Questions had been raised over whether more overtakes would be made due to these revisions, including from Hamilton as he claimed that promises were broken.
“I think, last year for us was pretty bad with the bouncing because you’ve got the turbulence and the bouncing,” Hamilton said during the Australian Grand Prix weekend. “Whereas this year, we don’t have the bouncing, so we have [fewer] issues following cars. I think it’s still a little bit better than the previous generation of cars, but it hasn’t delivered everything they said it would.”
However, it appears that parity in the sport is truly alive and the field is closer than ever before – something F1 bosses wanted the rule changes to help achieve. This year is the first time that every team has had at least a point after the first three rounds of the championship.
In 2022, nine teams had at least one point after three races, with only Aston Martin failing to secure any points despite being one of the biggest success stories of 2023 so far.
At the Australian GP, McLaren and AlphaTauri also scored their first points, taking all constructors off zero after three races, also setting a new F1 record.
After finishing sixth last season amid a disappointing campaign for Hamilton and Mercedes, the Brit is currently sitting in fourth place behind the two Red Bulls in Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, while he also trails Fernando Alonso and the Aston Martin team with Lance Stroll also in sixth – potentially proving that F1 were correct to make the changes that they did.
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