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Kneeslider
11th July 2007, 23:27
Since Fernando jumped ship at Renault, and has had difficulty adapting to the driving style required from his new Mclaren, I have been having a bit of a ponder.

Martin Brundle was on the telly recently, talking about how the Renaults of recent times have had a very well documented advantage off the start line, having noticably improved traction compared to the competition. Also, Alonso was famous for using a rather odd looking driving style, which required him to understeer the car in a most ungainly manner. What really got me thinking was that MB was saying that the Renault had a rearward CofG which made it behave in such a manner.

Now then, if this was indeed the case, and knowing that F1 cars have ballast; (lead ingots attached to the floor, to make the weight up to the minimum required by the regs) why don't you make the ballast movable, say by attaching it to a long screw thread. That way the launch control would know when a more rearward weight bias was required, so the ballast could be moved rearward, then for optimum cornering balance, the weight could be moved to a more central position?

Simple huh?

But why stop there? Why not exploit that marvellous motorcycling characteristic of being able to constantly move the CofG about while going through acceleration, braking and cornering?

It would literally add a whole new dimension to what is possible!

Will Mr A Newey please send the cheque (in a plain brown envelope) to the usual address. :D

Valve Bounce
12th July 2007, 00:34
It's illegal.

wedge
12th July 2007, 00:37
For an F1 car the ideal weight distribution is around 60/40 in favour of rear weight. Obviously different constructors have different concepts. Renault favoured something like 62% rear weight bias in previous years because partly to exploit the Michelin tyres - managing graining on the front tyres being one example.

This year most cars rear weight bias is closer to 55% due to the characteristics of this year's set of hard BS tyres.

Ballast is added to meet the min. weight requirements. The engineers are free where to place lead bars on the chassis floor but driver-influenced-moveable ballast is banned so is any other form of ballast - BAR's secret fuel tank a few years ago was deemed illegal.

Anyway, cars and bikes are two different things. One of the arts of being a rider is to manage the weight shift by using his/her body as ballast. The art of driving on the limit is to manage the weight shift through brake, throttle and steering input.

tinchote
12th July 2007, 00:47
Since Fernando jumped ship at Renault, and has had difficulty adapting to the driving style required from his new Mclaren, I have been having a bit of a ponder.

Martin Brundle was on the telly recently, talking about how the Renaults of recent times have had a very well documented advantage off the start line, having noticably improved traction compared to the competition. Also, Alonso was famous for using a rather odd looking driving style, which required him to understeer the car in a most ungainly manner. What really got me thinking was that MB was saying that the Renault had a rearward CofG which made it behave in such a manner.

Now then, if this was indeed the case, and knowing that F1 cars have ballast; (lead ingots attached to the floor, to make the weight up to the minimum required by the regs) why don't you make the ballast movable, say by attaching it to a long screw thread. That way the launch control would know when a more rearward weight bias was required, so the ballast could be moved rearward, then for optimum cornering balance, the weight could be moved to a more central position?

Simple huh?

But why stop there? Why not exploit that marvellous motorcycling characteristic of being able to constantly move the CofG about while going through acceleration, braking and cornering?

It would literally add a whole new dimension to what is possible!

Will Mr A Newey please send the cheque (in a plain brown envelope) to the usual address. :D


The regulations explicitly say that ballast has to be fixed.

Kneeslider
12th July 2007, 00:49
BAH! Well, there goes another potentially world beating idea. I thought that it was just too good to be legal.

Valve Bounce
12th July 2007, 01:50
Well, there's nothing that I know of that says the driver's seat has to be permanently fixed, is there? Maybe we could shift the driver forward and backwards; and if we could make the pod wider, maybe even have him lean in on corners.

Dave B
12th July 2007, 11:00
It's illegal.
Oh please! When has that ever stopped anyone? :eek:

Valve Bounce
12th July 2007, 11:11
Nah!! too easy to find.

luvracin
12th July 2007, 16:16
You could use the fuel as ballast, and pump it forward or backward.....or was that what got Honda in trouble?

Storm
12th July 2007, 19:09
No Honda had a hidden tank inside the main tank to make sure the car was ok at weigh in.....at least thats what I think !

andreag
12th July 2007, 19:18
You could use the fuel as ballast, and pump it forward or backward.....or was that what got Honda in trouble?
You can't. If you use the fuel as a movable ballast to get the maximum from the car, what would happen at the end of every stint, when threre's no ballast to help to drive the car?