The high-frequency bouncing seen in the 2022 season, quickly nicknamed 'porpoising', was the most significant aerodynamic challenge for teams getting to grips with the new ground effect regulations. This post explains the complex physics behind this phenomenon and the various solutions engineers devised to tame it. The phenomenon occurs when the airflow through the Venturi tunnels under the car stalls at high speed, causing a sudden and significant loss of downforce. This makes the car 'pop up' on its suspension. As the car rises, the airflow reattaches, the downforce returns, and the car is sucked back down to the track. This cycle repeats rapidly, leading to the violent bouncing motion. Teams experimented with stiffer suspension setups, raised ride heights, and modifications to the floor's edge to control this, but these fixes often came at the cost of overall aerodynamic performance. It became a classic engineering trade-off between performance and stability.