Lotus's new ride height adjustment system deemed legal by the FIA

arknor said:
mercedes has a system that sounds exactly the same which scarbs has already detailed
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That's a fluid linked rear suspension, nothing to do with the ride height.

Surely this news has leaked too early?


Thomas. PLease. said:
Reading that scarbsf1 article it seems as this isn't really something thats really going to improve lap times in a big way, as such I can't imagine it will be top of everyone's list to copy asap. It seems as if its more a device to improve reliability/maintainability.

Another interesting point was raised where by in the act of filing the patent, they have to allow free licence to all other teams for use in their cars and designs. As such you would wonder why they'd do this if there were a significant performance advantage.
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That's assuming they patent it.

No patent = no need to publish schematics etc.
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
Reading that scarbsf1 article it seems as this isn't really something thats really going to improve lap times in a big way, as such I can't imagine it will be top of everyone's list to copy asap. It seems as if its more a device to improve reliability/maintainability.
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That is my thoughts as well. I don't think its anywhere near F-Duct or Double Diffuser in terms of performance difference.
 
EVH said:
Surely this news has leaked too early?
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They tested it at the young driver test at the end of last year and people got photos. Had they waited until the winter tests they might have gotten away with it for longer.


However, if the rumours are true then McLaren and RedBull could be using the Peltier effect in this years cars. Also previous rumours had said that the MP4-27 was going to have quite small air intakes similar to a fighter jet. Those two go hand in hand as they both are related to cooling but we'll know in 18 days or so what the cars actually look like.

More importantly than that, Kubica has broken his leg again :(
 
Hurray, some technical intrigue, this is what F1 is all about. If it is true that Lotus have been under discussion with the FIA for over a year about it then the development time for something like this may be far too long for the top teams to implement it before the start of the season.
 
Duke said:
That is my thoughts as well. I don't think its anywhere near F-Duct or Double Diffuser in terms of performance difference.
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Agreed. If it turns out to have a positive impact on tyre wear, which I guess is possible, then that in itself could make a bit of a difference (context in F1 terms!).
 
Alibaba99 said:
It will probably only affect the wear at the front, and it is the rears which have been the problem.
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I don't expect tyre wear to be an issue this year, they have tons of data for each circuit now.
Although saying that, I think they've tweaked the compounds a bit, but still won't be anywhere near as big an issue,
 
That Williams exhaust system (blowing air to the underside of the rear wing), looks like a simple but efficient system.

In combination with a good ride height system, it could be what they need too :)
 
Goates said:
Hurray, some technical intrigue, this is what F1 is all about. If it is true that Lotus have been under discussion with the FIA for over a year about it then the development time for something like this may be far too long for the top teams to implement it before the start of the season.
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not necessarily imo

1stly - we cant know for sure at what point of developement the Lotus idea was at when they first presented to FIA (was it a working model, or due to funds was it "can we spend money on this idea, or will you (the FIA) block it straight away")

2) Renault have been struggling for a while, they have good engineers but not the best on the grid so it could take them longer to come up with /develop etc the idea esp considering 1) than it would take much more qualified engineers at the top 3 in retro-fiting similar design to their cars
 
Apparently they first had the idea as early as May last year, and were in contact with the FIA immediately to get clarification that it was legal.

The reason they didn't bother implementing it on last years car was because they gave up 90% of their development time after they realised Kubica wasn't coming back any time soon, and Petrov and Heidfeld weren't setting the world on fire.

As to any alleged performance benefit, I did see one report that said .3 per lap, but that seems a bit high considering KERS gives that with it's extra 80bhp.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
The top teams will have copied it by the first race.
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Copying the function and copying the effect are not one and the same though. I've read that Renault (Lotus) went to the FIA with this in January 2011. If that's the case they could well have a lot of data on the tech which the other teams won't have yet. Unless they too spotted it at the young driver test at the end of the season like Ferrari did.
 
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