FIA bans mass damping system

Mercedes Benz, in 00 i think it was. Ferrari had it banned cause they couldn't get any for themselves.

 

Supposedly the car doesn't vibrate as much when you hit curbs and such.

 

Skyscrapers also use a mass damper system to avoid swaying in the wind.

Pretty clever adapting it to automotive use. FIA should let "manufacturers" run with this one -- it might be useful for production machines.

 

^Agreed. I fail to see how any of this stuff is detrimental to the sport. They continually claim that high-costs of R&D are the bane of F1, but it is quite the opposite as far as I can tell. When outside of the box developments are allowed (and encouraged) any team on the grid is one great idea away from a championship. Great ideas are not directly (linearly) related to money.

When you have a spec series, only the big money teams have a shot because everyone is trying to squeeze that very last drop out (law of diminishing returns).

 

Cool. I knew they banned it in calipers in the 90s, surprised they didn't ban it entirely. Pretty wild stuff.

Ferrari spent quite a bit of money trying to get titanium to work for the blocks in the mid 90s, couldn't get it to seal to the alum heads though.

 

I've heard that Renault are still using this system this weekend. Apparently this has been legalised by the stewards at Hockenheim in Renault cars. It looks like Renault tried it outside FIA and won the case. What's the point in FIA making the rules only to be overturned by the stewards?

 

The FIA have now announced they're appealing against the Stewards descision, it will be decided in a hearing next week, as historicaly the FIA havent lost an appeal my guess is that Renault & the others will remove the dampers........or face a possible results disqualification next week

 

I keep saying: it's not how much you spend, but what you get for the money. F1 should be part of the R&D budget.

But I suspect that Bermax is trying to keep costs down for the teams that don't build street cars. The real manufacturers aren't as easy to push around.