FIA wins Appeal Over "Mass Dampers"

[Jack_Bauer]

It has just been announced that, unsuprisingly, the FIA's court of appeal has decided to uphold the FIA's own appeal about the allowing of the hugely contentious "mass-damper" system that Renault has pioneered over the past year. It'll no doubt be a huge blow to Renault who were quite confident of getting the system re-legalised in time for this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix. Some have speculated that the loss of the system at the Hockenheim Grand Prix lost them possibly as much as 0.3secs per lap in terms of raw pace. How accurate that is I guess we'll never know for sure, but there's no doubt that it'll hurt Renault for the upcoming races given that there has been the mid-summer testing ban these last few weeks, so they have had little chance to try and work their way around the problem.

If it wasn't there already, the ball is now firmly in Ferrari and Schumacher's hands in the race for the end of season silverware. They must surely be the favourites now to regain their titles.

The FIA International Court of Appeal met in Paris on Tuesday, August 22, 2006, to examine the appeal made by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile against Decision No. 8 handed down by the Stewards of the Meeting on July 28, 2006, concerning the T car of competitor Mild Seven Renault F1 on the occasion of the Grand Prix of Germany and counting towards the 2006 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Having heard the explanations of both parties and having examined the various documents and other evidence, the Court quashed decision No. 8 of the Stewards of the Meeting and ruled that use of the device known as a Tuned Mass Damper is an infringement of Article 3.15 of the Formula One Technical Regulations.

[acemotorsport]

stupid fia that means ferrari will win and bye bye f1 exitement (or already lack of)

[Wouter Melissen]

Didn't Ferrari also use this mass-damper system!?

[acemotorsport]

but there competive anyway

[Jack_Bauer]

stupid fia that means ferrari will win and bye bye f1 exitement (or already lack of)

I could've bet my house on the first reply to this thread being a Ferrari/FIA conspiracy theory response.

[nota]

Didn't Ferrari also use this mass-damper system!?

Dunno but from memory some of the old sidevalve Ford models also used a mass damper

[henk4]

Dunno but from memory some of the old sidevalve Ford models also used a mass damper

and man, were these competitive.....

[RacingManiac]

Many failed to point out that Renault's miserable Hockenheim were also caused by their revised rear suspension package for the race, which were removed afterward since in Hockenheim they were suffering from, coincidentally, rear tire blistering issue....They weren't just 0.3 sec off the pace, they were not on the pace at all, due to their rear tire issue. While other Michelin runners, although not quite on Ferrari's level, were a lot more competitive that week....

Mass damper is not all of Renault's problem....

[m5child]

Can anybody explain how these mass dampers work? i've looked online in the limited amount of time i have at work but haven't been able to find anything concrete... any help is appreciated =)

[Jack_Bauer]

It's difficult to describe as it's situated inside the nosecone of the car and never actually gets seen. There is a rough diagram of it at the F1 official site - http://formula1.com/insight/technica...6/762/315.html

And if you don't have time to check it out at work the text from that article is -

Not new, but the subject of much controversy in Germany, the damper takes the form of a free-moving mass inside a vertical spring. Its function is to reduce the sensitivity of the car's front end to differing load variations between high- and low-speed sections of the track, and to counteract the negative effects of rebound over kerbs, so as to keep the car perfectly balanced and hence - indirectly - improve its aerodynamic efficiency. The FIA has contested its legality on the basis that no parts exerting an aerodynamic influence may be mobile. However, the German stewards found no problem with it - a decision the FIA has appealed against. Hence, Renault could race with the system this weekend, but are thought unlikely to take the risk.

What I don't get about this whole thing is the labelling of the system as an aerodynamic device. It seems vary shaky at best, surely the most logical way in which it could be deemed illegal would be as moveable ballast?

To be honest I'm disappointed with the way the FIA has handled the whole situation. Not because I think it's some conspiracy or anything like that, but the whole timing of the matter. If the system was something new that had appeared midway through a season then fair enough, but this system has been used legally since the back end of the '05 season. It wasn't considered illegal back then, nor when Renault and the 6 other teams using the system submitted their blueprints for their '06 designs, yet now all of a sudden it is. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the sport's governing body when they don't seem to have understood how the sytem works at first. It also doesn't look too smart when the law-makers start moving the goal-posts half way through a season. If they decided something was amiss then I think it would've made sense to just ban them at the end of the season and make a clarification to the technical regulations then, rather than cause such an embarrasing controversy that could have serious implications for the two titles. Either way it's a real mess, and something that the sport definitely didn't need just when we were set up for a thrilling run in to the season.

[Wouter Melissen]

Well it's a movable device designed to counter the effects aerodynamics have on the car. It's a grey area and for sure not a long shot to slow particular teams down.

[johnnyperl]

What I don't get about this whole thing is the labelling of the system as an aerodynamic device. It seems vary shaky at best, surely the most logical way in which it could be deemed illegal would be as moveable ballast?

it helps to stablize the car and reduce vibrations in the front and rear over bumps and kerbs. when they show the super slomo replays of a car going over a kerb you can see the wings vibrate under the shock. This mass is "tuned" to counteract the vibration. since it keeps the wings stable, and it moves, it violates the rule.

[RacingManiac]

The rumor was that McLaren asked for clarification about the device as they pointed out that the ultimate development of the device could led to a twin-chassis of sort(a la 80s Lotus) with suspension components being carried on a seperate frame with the aero-platform being more tightly controlled via these setups. This tipped FIA off and they start to rule it as such....

[fpv_gtho]

IMO theyre pushing it a bit labelling it as an aero device. If anything its a suspension device. Theres no real safety issue either, as when was the last time you saw the actual nose cone being torn off during a crash? Making the ruling so close to the end of the season as well when theyve known about the system since last season shows a lack of professionalism on the FIA's side as well.