There was some discussion prior to the start of this season as to how the cars would cope during qualifying with low fuel and parc fermé conditions. The problem is cars must now be fuelled for the entire race so they are quite a bit heavier at the start of the race than during qualifying.
So if you set the ride height up for the race the car is too high for optimum qualifying and will lose downforce.
On the other hand, if you set the car up for qualifying then it will be too low for the race once loaded with fuel.
During qualifying today, Martin Brundle commented that he could hear Mark Webber's car scraping on the track and couldn't understand how it could be set up so low during qualifying without compromising the race set up.
Well it would seem Red Bull (and Ferrari) have an adjustable ride height system which enables them to change the height after qualifying.
This accounts for their significant advantage over the rest of the teams.
Ferrari's system is manual but Red Bull's is more sophisticated and possibly linked to repressurising the dampers.
This is what Martin Whitmarsh had to say after qualifying at the Australian GP:
And this is what James Allen has to say on it:
Once again we see teams exploiting loopholes (as McLaren did with the F Duct) and other teams playing catch-up.
The question is though, are both of these systems legal?
Should the FIA be clamping down on this or is this the only way they can allow the designers a chance to gain an advantage over the other teams?
Personally I welcome the fact that there is scope to play around with the design but when you need a team of lawyers and technical experts to interpret the rules, it doesn't really help.
The FIA should make the rules and regulations simpler and clearer so everyone knows where they stand.
So if you set the ride height up for the race the car is too high for optimum qualifying and will lose downforce.
On the other hand, if you set the car up for qualifying then it will be too low for the race once loaded with fuel.
During qualifying today, Martin Brundle commented that he could hear Mark Webber's car scraping on the track and couldn't understand how it could be set up so low during qualifying without compromising the race set up.
Well it would seem Red Bull (and Ferrari) have an adjustable ride height system which enables them to change the height after qualifying.
This accounts for their significant advantage over the rest of the teams.
Ferrari's system is manual but Red Bull's is more sophisticated and possibly linked to repressurising the dampers.
This is what Martin Whitmarsh had to say after qualifying at the Australian GP:
BBC Sport - McLaren suspect Red Bull of trick ride-height system"There's evidence there are ride-height control systems which many people thought weren't permissable," he said.
"As you can imagine, we're working quite hard on those systems now.
"The original rulings suggested such systems wouldn't be allowed on cars but we're seeing some cars which seem to have them.
"We've got to have them fitted as soon as we can - hopefully by China (the fourth race of the season on 18 April) we'll have something on the car."
And this is what James Allen has to say on it:
James Allen: Melbourne – the low down on the latest tech ideasIt is perfectly legal as long as the car is stationary when the change is made and the gain is worth a few seconds over a race distance. Here’s how it’s calculated; every 1 mm of ride height you move is worth 5 kilos of downforce, which in turn is worth 0.05 seconds per lap. So if you pit on lap 18 in Melbourne, you can lower the car will have 40 laps of benefit, which is worth two seconds. If you lower the car by 4mm, which is realistic, you will gain 8 seconds. It is only worth it if you can make the change easily in the pit stop without losing that time.
Once again we see teams exploiting loopholes (as McLaren did with the F Duct) and other teams playing catch-up.
The question is though, are both of these systems legal?
Should the FIA be clamping down on this or is this the only way they can allow the designers a chance to gain an advantage over the other teams?
Personally I welcome the fact that there is scope to play around with the design but when you need a team of lawyers and technical experts to interpret the rules, it doesn't really help.
The FIA should make the rules and regulations simpler and clearer so everyone knows where they stand.