Porpoising has caused headaches this year, sometimes literally, for several Formula 1 teams since the pre-season tests, when the new single-seaters were released with the return of ground effect .
The rebound of the cars at high speeds does not have competitive connotations, but several drivers, especially (but not only) the Mercedes, have pointed out the danger it poses and the health problems it can generate in the short and medium term.
For this reason, the FIA has proposed to address it, and after a technical directive before the recent Canadian GP , this week it meets with the technical directors of the teams to seek possible solutions, not only for this 2022, but also for 2023 and the future.
And, as Motorsport.com has learned, one of the ideas on the table (and one that is far from definitive) is to go back to a piece that was talked about a lot, especially in 2005 and 2006, when Renault and Fernando Alonso won the two world championships for the Asturian. It is the ‘mass damper’, or mass damper, with which the French team reacted with great intelligence to the new rules of 2005 that led to a great rigidity of the front suspension so that the front wing was closer to the ground.
The mass damper , a free weight suspended inside a cylinder in the nose, helped to reduce the bounce of the cars by compensating for the vertical forces of the single-seater, and allowed the drivers who wore it to go through corners better by reacting better to passing by. curbs and by stabilizing the contact of the wheels with the asphalt.
Renault R25 mass damper
Its concept, at least in theory, sounds good as a weapon against porpoising , but why would F1 resort to a part that was actually banned in the middle of the 2006 season, considering that it had become more of an aerodynamic resource? instead of just mechanical?
This is precisely a debate in the paddock, as there are those who point out that it is not clear whether porpoising is of mechanical or aerodynamic origin. However, beyond that, there is another aspect to take into account, and it is a weighty issue. Never better said.
The mass damper was introduced at a time when teams easily dropped to the weight limit of cars and sometimes even had to add ballast because they exceeded it. Introducing in this generation of ‘overweight’ single-seaters an element that sometimes reached up to 10 kilos would be another headache for the designers of the teams.
As we reported, it is just a resource that is there and that Formula 1 may never see again, but simply evoking its memory surprises and, at the same time, takes us back to times past. And you know what the past times look like…
