F1technical.net

Hi all. i'm a new menber and i enjoy a lot mechanics.
I found this picture in another forum. Can someone explain me how works the 9 kilos mass put on the springs in the renault R26 ?
Is an armonic adsober for periodic forces or a way to change the law of the forces transmitted by the wheels on the ground during the quick transients that gives an impulse on the wheel ?

Very interesting first post mark, well done

Perhaps it has same effect as jumping in seat done in karting? The mass is always there but since car is exposed to vibrations all the time every time ballast goes up car "looses" that much weight and perhaps even (virtualy) decreases cars weight since ballast under upwards intertion actually "lifts" the car?

We've all seen cars bouncing around over kerbs on the slo' mo cameras. Some of the bouncing will be caused by the tyre getting excited into it's natural frequency, so the nose of the bobs around. This has the effect of making it hard for the driver to feel the grip he has. The damper is harmonised to reduce/cancel out the natural frequencies, so it helps keep the tyre in contact with the road for longer. But ONLY in those situations where the car is bouncing.

It's a bit like the dampers they put in buildings to resist earthquakes.

They must feel that it's worth having as they are carrying a fair bit of mass quite high up in the nose.

Nice pic Mark

Yeh, that was in Autosport magazine as well.

Interesting post, _mark. It appears to be a form of harmonic damper, and would stabilize the chassis in pitching motion. That would tend to maintain the front wing at a more constant height above the road surface, improving efficiency. Since active suspension is no longer allowed, this appears to be a novel approach in maintaining constant ride height.
One big issue we've all been made aware of is the problem of front end grip, especially Honda. Maybe if they had it back in Australia, Button wouldn't have been as vunerable to being passed.

Hard to tell, but does this sit in place of the 3rd spring?

It seems like the mass is there to balance out loading on the front wing and ultimately the front tires. If there is porpoising on the front end the mass is there to dampen the up/down oscillation, with the springs absorbing the load.

zac510 wrote:Hard to tell, but does this sit in place of the 3rd spring?

It's not connected to the suspension. The mass moves in response to a movement in the car's nose. The drawing only shows a mass sitting between two springs - I should imagine there is some form of damping in there too.

I see.. interesting!

I would like to see them try and run that through eau rouge at Spa....

This is their ballast from 2005



I'd like to see real photo of that thing and some official explanation. I don't see how author of that article menage to see it and make sketch if it is hidden with cover.

formula1.com presented it differently that previous article

formula1.com wrote:Renault R26 - internal nose damping system

Last year the 'secret' in Renault's nose was a metal plate which acted as ballast at its tip. This year, the team have developed the concept further with a sort a vertical damper whose function is to reduce the sensitivity of the car's front end to load variations between high low-speed sections of a track. It also reduces the effects of rebound when riding kerbs and pitch sensitivity. Overall, it helps the car to maintain optimum balance more of the time, hence allowing it to use its tyres more efficiently

At the silverstone test pre British gp i noticed BMW had a light (magic eye)shining down onto the circuit just in front of the front suspention wonder if they to have a simular device and where gaining data using the light as there recent upturn can't be just flexi wings.

Those light sensors, Correvit sensors or something similar are not new or unique. But they are quite a 'test only' feature.

Could be laser ride height sensor viewtopic.php?t=1642