Kneeslider
11th July 2007, 22:27
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
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