F1 News
Date: 24/January/2012
After initially signalling approval for Lotus-Renault’s innovative new reactive ride-height system, the FIA now looks to have stamped out the idea with a subsequent missive to all teams stating that it regards the technology as illegal.
The Lotus-Renault system was first spotted during last November’s Abu Dhabi young driver test, but was far from race-ready.
Here is some information about the system, similar versions of which are believed to be under development by Mercedes and Ferrari.
What is it for?
When a driver hits the brakes, the weight transfer causes the front end of the car to dive downwards. This means that the car ride-height - how high the bottom of the car is above the racetrack - needs to take into account this movement.
F1 cars depend highly on aerodynamics and the higher the ride height, the less downforce is generated. A second issue is related to the front wing, which produces a large proportion of the car’s downforce. As the front of the car dips under braking, the wing gets lower to the track, which in turns makes more downforce.
It is for this reason that so much discussion has focussed on the flexing of front wings in recent years, since by flexing nearer to the track, the wing can create more downforce.
But this sudden change in downforce when braking is undesirable, since it causes stability problems. As the downforce-balance shifts to the front of the car, the back of the car becomes ‘light’ and therefore more prone to spinning.
By correcting the ride-height change under braking, a lower ride height can be used and the car is more stable under braking.
How does is work?
That’s the top secret part, but from what has leaked out it appears that the device fits on to the braking system on each of the front wheels and uses hydraulics, powered by brake torque, to raise the front suspension and thus stabilise the ride height.
Anti-dive suspension systems have been around for a long time, but the Lotus-Renault system is far more advanced.
Is it legal?
Renault would not have developed the system as far as they have without checking and receiving positive support from the FIA. However the FIA, perhaps following petitions from other teams which have since become aware of the device, now feels that the system breaks the ban on movable aerodynamics. It’s worth noting that Lotus-Renault and others could yet modify the design to ease the concerns of the FIA.
How much advantage would it offer?
Difficult to say, but it seems unlikely that the system alone will suddenly turn the Lotus-Renault team into title contenders once again. Most believe it could offer around 0.2sec per lap potential gain.
When would it be used?
Renault-Lotus were stung badly by their innovative forward blowing exhaust system during 2011 and, as such, were highly unlikely to rush the new reactive ride height system into operation for 2012.
In fact, even with FIA approval, we doubt it would have been used by Renault-Lotus for the start of the 2012 season, with issues such as packaging of the device within the highly aerodynamic sensitive front-wheel area - as well as bullet-proof endurance testing - some way off completion.
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