F1 'porpoising' problem is so bad that it's starting to actively hurt drivers, with one complaining of back and chest pains

• "Porpoising," an aerodynamic issue which causes uncomfortable bouncing, is hitting many F1 teams.
• Drivers for defending world champions Mercedes are suffering particularly badly.

The issue with so-called "porpoising" on the Mercedes Formula One car this season is so bad that one of the team's drivers has complained of unsustainable physical pain.

Mercedes, which has dominated F1 since 2014, has struggled for pace early in the 2022 season, with the team's lead driver Lewis Hamilton already admitting that he is out of contention to win a seventh world title.

One of Mercedes' biggest issues is that of porpoising, a new phenomenon in the sport caused by changes in the 2022 season's aerodynamic regulations.

Motorsport authorities this season placed greater importance on the creation of downforce — which gives the car grip in corners by sucking it into the ground — via the floor, or underside, of the car.

The new regulations lean on an aerodynamic principle called the ground effect.

But the ground effect can have the unintended consequence of making some F1 cars bounce up and down when driving fast in a straight line as downforce rapidly decreases then increases.

Porpoising — so called because the affected cars look like porpoises swimming — was first noticed during preseason testing, varying in severity from team to team.

Mercedes is one of the teams worst impacted, with Hamilton's teammate George Russell warning after this weekend's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix that the physical pain that porpoising is causing him is unsustainable.

See an example of Russell here:

"The bouncing, it really takes your breath away. It's the most extreme I've ever felt it," Russell told reporters after the race, in which he finished fourth and Hamilton finished 13th.

"I really hope we find a solution and I hope every team struggling with the bouncing finds a solution, because it's not sustainable for the drivers to continue.

"This is the first weekend I've truly been struggling with my back, and almost like chest pains from the severity of the bouncing."

Russell isn't the first driver to complain of the physical impacts of porpoising, with championship leader Charles Leclerc saying after the first preseason test that the motion made him feel sick.

"It feels like turbulence on an airplane, going up and down the whole straight," Leclerc told reporters after the initial round of testing in Barcelona. "I think one of the videos that F1 posted shows this phenomenon quite well, and I can't say it feels nice. It makes you a little bit ill."