Juan Pablo Montoya claims F1 drivers once feigned injury so the FIA would slow Red Bull down

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F1 drivers exaggerated the physical problems associated with porpoising in a cunning attempt to hurt Red Bull, Juan Pablo Montoya claims.

At the start of the ground-effect era in 2022, many cars were affected by the unforeseen phenomenon that saw them effectively ‘bounce’ on the pit straight.

After one race in Azerbaijan, seven-time world champion Leiws Hamilton climbed out of the car gingerly and said he was praying for the chequered flag due to the back pain. This was perhaps the most dramatic illustration of how porpoising impacted the drivers.

Juan Pablo Montoya says F1 drivers acted like 2022 cars would ‘break their backs’

Montoya believes that many of the complaints made by drivers like Max Verstappen at the start of the 2026 season are motivated by sporting interests. Red Bull are lagging behind the dominant Mercedes team, so it’s in their interests if the rules are changed.

There does appear to be a correlation between a driver’s results and their public statements about the regulations, though this is unsurprising and doesn’t confirm that gamesmanship is taking place.

But Montoya says such politicking is typical of Formula 1. Looking back at the porpoising debate, he suggested that drivers overdramatised the aches and pains to try and slow Red Bull down after they won seven of the first nine races.

He said on the Chequered Flag podcast: “When Max was winning under the old regs, everybody was breaking their back and complaining about their backs [due to the cars] bottoming.

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“Was it rough that it was bottoming? Yes. Was it going to break their backs? No, but if they could force the cars to run higher, it would take performance out of the Red Bull and equal the cars.”

Christian Horner questioned whether Mercedes’ porpoising complaints were genuine

Speaking after the aforementioned Baku race, Red Bull boss Christian Horner said, via ESPN: “I’d tell [my drivers] to b—- as much as they could on the radio and make as big an issue out of it as they possibly could. It’s part of the game.”

Horner also pointed out that any teams who were affected could raise their car’s ride height to mitigate the issue, even if that would cost them performance.

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The FIA then issued a directive for the Canadian GP requiring teams who were experiencing porpoising to make changes to their setup.

Then, from the Belgium GP, the sport’s governing body tried to limit ‘vertical oscillations’ by carrying out stricter inspections of the car’s underbody.

If there was an effort to curb Red Bull’s advantage, it didn’t work, with Verstappen winning all but two races between the summer break and the end of the season.