23 February 2023 , 16:18
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Ferrari sparked porpoising concerns on the first morning of pre-season testing as Carlos Sainz had a bit of a bumpy ride around the Bahrain International Circuit.
The Scuderia will hope to have a car this season which is as competitive as the machine they fielded during the 2022 campaign. And the noises coming out of Maranello indicate that they feel they are in good shape in that regard.
But there was some concern as the SF-23 hit the track for testing on Thursday morning. With Sainz behind the wheel during the first session of the day, it did not go unnoticed that the car was bouncing around a fair bit on certain parts of the track.
Speaking over TV footage of the Spaniard as he oscillated in his seat, Sky Sports pundit Anthony Davidson said: "There was an awful lot of porpoising from the car just then on the run down to the final corner. It is [a bumpy track here] but I've not seen anyone's head bouncing around quite as much as Sainz.
"Maybe they are just trying to sneak the car down and test the limits of it. There was bouncing through Turn 12 and sparking at the rear. They are starting to test things by dropping the car lower and lower. Porpoising and bouncing hasn’t gone away this year."
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Team boss Frederic Vasseur was quick to ease worries, telling reporters: "It's not at all as it was one year ago with the car bouncing like a kangaroo. Today we have on some part of the track before turn one, turn 12, it's a bit more bumpy than it was before, but it's a different issue."
Fred Vasseur appeared unconcerned about the bouncing (Getty Images)Mercedes were among those who suffered the most from porpoising last year as they struggled to get on top of the problem. But Toto Wolff offered a positive verdict when speaking after the first session.
He told reporters: "It seems to be balanced in the right way. There's no bouncing, which is good news... apart from that big bump at the end of the straight.
"We had a little bit of movement in Turn 12, the faster one. But it is not anywhere close to the degree that we had last year, and at this stage not performance limiting.