Track Rumble Strips

Typically taking some of the kerbs allows you to carry more speed in, through and out of the corner. We don't hear/see it that often that teams are struggling with kerbs, really, but Mercedes has used it on occasion. Mercedes claims they have a sensor issue but it's also quite likely it's their way of team orders.

We have had on very rare occassions see cars vibrating bits of the car.

The reality is, sometimes they add an orange ''sausage'' kerb, now that's the one to really look out for...I'm about to have some dinner but they've caused some enormous accidents in formula cars and I'm surprised to see them still used.

 

Rumble strips are on all tracks. Some are higher than others.

Mercedes experienced gearbox issues at one track due to the sensors telling the pit wall of the vibrations from the rumble strips....the drivers tried to stay off the rumble strips after the pit wall told the drivers to stay off them. As far as the tires, suspension....those components can take the vibrations.

 

Weight transfer is the main reason that rumble strips don't have a negative effect. The car is rolling while it's turning so the outer tyres have the most grip. The inner tyres are like gliding over the kerbs so to speak.

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The yellow sausage kerbs which are used as a deterrent is what usually damages the cars.
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When you are at the exit corner rumble strips the weight has transferred to the rear so the negative effects are minimised by the maximum amount of grip the rears have.



In the rain is the only time you see them avoid the kerbs.

 

That's true for the apex of a corner, not the exit.
The rumble strips then have full effect on the outer tyres.

Once can question the need for rumble strips. They in fact make the track "larger" and encourage the drivers to use them.
Yet the FIA insists on them to homologate circuits; they are the ones who created the problem.

When I watch old racing footage, I see that many circuits didn't have them, just a white line and then grass.
Some circuits had half buried tyres to delimit the corners, so no driver was deliberately going outside track limits!!

 

Its true for the entry, apex and exit of the corner. A corner is split into multiple phases and controlling the weight transfer is important for every phase to maximise your speed.

Old races didn't really care about safety so we will never go back to those days. Plenty of other things they can fix to make racing better.

 

Rumble strips don't improve safety, no more than tarmaced run-off areas. That's a fallacy.
They just encourage bad driving .
We saw it again this afternoon at the Parabolica where lap after lap, some drivers were going outside track limits, only to have their time disallowed.

 

Tom,

The straighter the line through the turn, the faster it is.

Are there affects to the car going over these strips? It depends. The tracks where the surface is dug into to create the "bumps" has little effect on the car. It just sounds cool. The bumps that are higher are when the problems can start. Mild bumps, not so big a deal. Big bumps can indead break suspension pieces and damage the floor of the car.

The old days had gravel traps and or grass at track limits. That used to be a pretty big deterrent to exceeding track limits. As well as places like Monaco and Canada where you meet the wall. Still, drivers push all the way to the edge and sometimes pay the price.

In a perfect world we would have a configuration that could keep drivers within the track boundaries. But sometimes drivers exceed those limits on/by accident. That's when having a nice smooth asphalt surface is nice. No grass or gravel traps to get the car upside down.

Add to all that, these tracks are shared with other racing organizations. Motorcycles don't like grass or gravel traps......

Hope I answered your question.

 

I think you have answered the question right on the nose. the rumble strips - kerbs on F-1 tracks can be a serious hit to a car, and they also give the driver a huge hit to the back side and spine... all bump damping is in the tire - and lateral forces to keep ride height is in the suspension.

I've driven Monza before - just two years ago... and the red and white strips while they dont look too bad on TV - are pretty nasty in person... and some of them are actually lower than the track surface.. Ascari being a major one... but the exit is not too bad... but some tracks have some really steep kerbing ... that you can bottom out on - which not only transfers the G's to the driver ( aero load ) - it also wears the plank on the bottom of the car.

 

Could we say they "encourage excessive risk taking" instead of "bad driving".

 

Just put spikes there. Go too far you end up with a shredded tire. I think the lines would tighten up nicely after a couple of races.

 

One certainly respects track limits more when there are unforgiving walls around rather than generous run-off areas !!

When you know that any liberty you take, any mistake you do and your are out of the race, you concentrate in being tidy a bit more.

The drivers behave differently at Singapour than in Monza, that is certain.