Analyzing Porpoising on High Downforce Race Cars: Causes and Possible Setup Adjustments to Avoid It

The so-called porpoising is a well-known problem similar to bouncing that is affecting the dynamic behavior of basically all the field of 2022 Formula 1 racing cars. It is due to the extreme sensitivity of aerodynamic loads to ride height variations along a lap. Mid-way through the season race engineers are still struggling to cope with this phenomenon and its consequences, with regard to either physiological stress experienced by the drivers or to overall vehicle performance and stability. The paper introduces two kinds of models based on real-world chassis and aerodynamic data, where the above-mentioned downforce sensitivity has been arbitrarily recreated through the application of a decay function to aero maps. The first one is a quasi-static model, usually adopted as a trackside tool for controlling ride heights and aero balance, while the second, a fully dynamic model, recreates the interaction between oscillating aerodynamic loads and suspension dynamics resulting in a visible porpoising phenomenon. Basic setup changes have been tested, including significant static ride height variations. The paper should be seen as a proposal of guidelines in the search of a trade-off between aerodynamic stability and overall performance, without pretention of quantitative accuracy due to the highly confidential topic, which makes numerical validation impossible.