Suspension System Work Formula One car

 

The suspension system of a formula one car forms the critical interface between the performance generating components of power units, chassis, aerodynamics and tires. It comes as no surprise therefore that the design, manufacture and set up of suspension is an extremely complex affair. Manufacture all the suspension in house. This is because they are very complex and, they are what we call safety critical items. They are structural items and the safety of the car, and the driver depends on them. They are made in the house because they can control the quality, are using expensive materials and need of precision. The biggest challenges in designing formula one suspension are to make the trade offs between the strength, the weight and physical size of suspension. Size because these components are in the air stream. They have a huge effect on the car aerodynamic, so we need to minimize that effect. But at the same they are structural, safety critical devices and must achieve the strength. Then we must minimize the weight. So, this means that all together this is and big structural challenges and big manufacturing challenges that we have in formula one. There are three main parts of formula one suspension system. It has the inboard suspension, hidden away underneath the bodywork, where it has the springs, the dampers and the anti-rolls bar. And here hidden away under the tires has the outboard suspension, which is the upright, the wheel bearings and the axle. In between, the parts you can see which are the wishbone elements and the steering rod, which are the only items that really see the external airflow. In designing all these three the common theme is stiffness. It keeps the wheel position controlled as accurately as possible. Outboard we’re looking at the challenges of high temperature; they’re close to the brakes. Inboard, have the complex components, the hydraulic system, the dampers, the springs the anti-roll bars, and in the middle, in the leg elements, have the structural and aerodynamic challenge. Formula one driver and engineers are talking about balance. The reason is that the four tires behave differently every part of the truck, every corner of the track. We want to do is to control the relative amount of the grip of those four tires, as the driver goes through different phases of the corners of the circuit. What the suspension allows us to do is to change minutely the amount of grip that those four tires generate at any one point. That is done by adjusting the inboard settings of the suspension by adjusting the damping and by adjusting what we call the mechanical balance. That’s because with the adjustment we can control the change of grip from the rear axle to the front acle and that depends on the car speed and the track conditions suspension loads we are generating. Sometimes it taken from sensors on the internal suspension and sometimes from the sensors built into the suspension itself. Its very critical to understand the real loads the suspension sees. So, the maximum loads that we design the suspension for are based on simulation and are based on previous years’ experience and a collection of unusual loads that are recorded over the years in unusual conditions. Spinning the car, going backwards over a curb, hitting brakes while the car is in the air and landing.