riff_raff wrote:Giblet,
Active suspension on F1 cars was, in effect, active aero. The main benefit of active suspension on an F1 chassis was that it virtually eliminated changes in pitch, roll and ride height. So the aero downforce and traction balance produced by the underbody was always perfectly consistent and predictable. Whether the car was accelerating, braking, cornering, or going straight at high/low speeds. In a straight line, the ride height and pitch (and thus downforce) could even be adjusted to reduce drag and allow higher straightaway speeds.
Most suspension design and tuning on an aero chassis with conventional suspension, like an F1 car, focuses on optimizing the performance of the underbody aerodynamics during cornering, braking, etc. Things like weight transfer and mechanical grip are usually secondary issues, since the underbody is so effective at producing downforce.
Purely active aero devices on an F1 car would be a huge engineering effort. The sheer number of actuators required for all of the wing elements, undertray, and spoilers would be huge, expensive, and would require a very complex controller, instrumentation and software system.
But having said that, the active suspension systems used in F1 before they were banned, gave truly impressive performance.
Regards,
Terry
I knew all that, but thanks.
Active suspension is a mechanical device that keeps the car level, and keeps the aero consistent. The mass damper could be argued to be in the same ballpark,so you must agree with the FIA in the classification of aero parts
A movable flap is active aero, and doesn't affect the pitch of the car the same way as active suspension, that is why I think this post is convoluted, and so is the votable topic.
Active aero would not cost as much, but active suspension allowed Williams to dominate because they were the only team with it (as far as developed properly) and were untouchable.
In the modern era, it will be about who has the best active ride, and having the best of something in F1 cost a --- LOAD of money. The amount of performance that comes from active suspension, and to a lesser extent active aero, would meant that it would be a contest of the best active car, not the best drivers in the best cars fighting it out. After a while the teams will start h=chasing tiny incremental gains in that department, and either other departments might suffer, or the cost will spiral out of control (AGAIN) and it will be rebanned.
We need to learn form history, not repeat it;'s failures.
There was also the constant complaint that all these things were making the cars almost easy to drive. TC, Active suspension, auto shifting, launch control, etc.
