Mercedes driver Russell's call for active suspension dismissed

Mercedes driver George Russell's call for F1 to reinstate active suspension has been dismissed by AlphaTauri technical director Jody Egginton.

Active suspension was outlawed at the end of the 1993 championship season as the sport aimed to stop the increasing dependence on driver aids at the time.

But with a return to a ground-effect aerodynamic philosophy as part of F1's radically altered technical regulations for the upcoming season, almost every team was forced to cope with the porpoising phenomenon at the first pre-season test in Barcelona.

As a "click-of-the-fingers" solution to the vigorous bouncing cars experienced in a straight line, Mercedes driver Russell made the call for active suspension.

Asked if there was the need for another overhaul of the regulations in order to facilitate active suspension, Egginton explained: "Yeah, it would. It would need a rather large amendment to the regulations to incorporate that.

"Going back a couple of years, active suspension was discussed in a suspension working group forum at length and at that time, it was decided to simplify the passive systems rather than go to active.

"Although active [suspension] obviously has benefits in controlling the platform, it would need a rather large makeover of the regulations and I would imagine there would be a rather large cost overhead as well.

"So not the work of a moment and not something I would imagine is going to happen short term."

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