George Russell of Mercedes F1 believes that the revival of active suspension will solve the porpoising phenomenon that each team had problems with in the F1 preseason test.
George Russell and his rivals experienced a porpoising phenomenon of bouncing straight up and down on a new generation 2022 F1 car.
The porpoising phenomenon is the result of adopting the aerodynamics of the ground effect effect. The downforce pushes the car down to the road surface, and when the aerodynamics under the floor stall, the car rises from the road surface, and when the aerodynamics under the floor reappears, the car repeats the movement of descending to the ground again toward the ground.
McLaren reportedly found a “slot trick” to solve it, but other teams sought a solution in Barcelona.
According to Auto Motor und Sport, McLaren “created a long slot parallel to the rear edge of the floorboard, which is thought to prevent porpoising because it provides an escape route for the air as the floor bends down. There is. ” He added that rivals are an “easy” solution to copy.
But George Russell says he believes that active suspension is definitely another solution that works.
“We saw how bad it was for them in Charles’ video, so I think we need to find a solution,” said George Russell.
“If you have an active suspension, I think you can solve it with a click of your finger. With that, of course, the car will be much faster.”
“I’m sure every team is capable and it could be one in the future, but let’s take a look in Bahrain. I’m sure the team will come up with some clever ideas on this issue. is doing”
Active suspension was banned prior to the 1994 season in F1’s move to remove driver aids.
“With active suspension, the same aerodynamic surface can significantly increase the speed of the car, because you can optimize the ride height for each corner speed, minimize drag and optimize straights.”
“So it’s an easy way to get the car to run faster, and when it comes to safety, it’s potentially an improvement.”
“I’m sure there are more restrictions. I’m not an engineer, but we’ll soon have no problems. That’s for sure.”
James Key, McLaren F1’s technical director, also considers active suspension to be a positive long-term solution for F1. But he is skeptical of going that route in the era of cost caps.
“Active can be useful in two ways,” said James Key.
“We can aim to maintain peak aero performance with more laps, which would be great.”
“But in some way it may be possible to counter some of the natural frequencies that hit the chassis. So, again, it doesn’t eradicate the problem and physics is still there. But it certainly helps to manage it. “
“As a technical director, I personally want to see the resurgence of active suspension, but this is not the best project due to cost limits.”
Category: Category: F1 / George Russell / Mercedes