r/F1Technical • u/notworki • Feb 07 '21

Historic F1/Analysis Hey everyone! I made a video analysing the performance of the Mass Damper used in the Renault R25. The mass dampers used in buildings were brought over to Formula 1 by Renault, giving them quite an advantage until it was banned. I hope you enjoy the video and forgive the amateur production quality!

https://youtu.be/NXwV2oEG-go
232 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

25

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '21

In all the years I've followed F1 (since 1986) the Mass Damper is probably my favourite bit of tech from F1 history. Such a clever device, and I still don't entirely understand how they were able to ban it.

11

u/Dragonist777 Feb 08 '21

They have a rule against active aero that also applies to internals that effect aero. (Active suspension, fric, f-duct, front drs, ect.

11

u/AlQueefaSpokeslady Feb 08 '21

The FIA have been banning things that never needed to be banned for far, far too long. It's a joke. I stopped watching F1 because of it. Just rules for the sake of rules.

I mean this is a perfect case - a passive component, inside the car (as in, not aero). And they ban it.

7

u/august_r Feb 08 '21

It's all fun and games until you have to spend millions on a technology just to be competitive. The same reason they banned the DAS, and why they should've dropped the V6 eons ago.

0

u/AlQueefaSpokeslady Feb 08 '21

That's why you're there. Fuck the backmarkers, let the big boys spend what they want. As long as there are at least two different teams, I'm happy.

2

u/august_r Feb 08 '21

Yeah, because that has worked really well for bringing in manufacturers and worked wonders in the past with GT1 and not long ago, in LMP1, where classes burst with cost.

1

u/AlQueefaSpokeslady Feb 09 '21

I don't really care. F1 was better when the cars were actually different. I enjoyed watching cars with wildly different engines, gearboxes and aero on the track together. Shit, for some seasons, there was more than one tyre manufacturer.

It was amazing to see the car use a different engine and gearbox (and sometimes other components) for the sole purpose of qualifying.

But that's all gone, now. It may as well be a spec series. As such, F1 is finished (for me). I have no further interest. I didn't start watching racing cars to marvel at their fuel economy.

3

u/Pahasapa66 Feb 08 '21 edited Feb 08 '21

In addition, some of these banned elements shouldn't be banned anymore. Originaly they where too expensive for Formula 1 to build into the cars, but are now quite reasonable. Case in point: Active Suspension.

2

u/flyinnotdyin Feb 08 '21

definately, now its a tech in "mundane" cars.

20

u/notworki Feb 07 '21

Hello! In this video, I analyse how Renault used a mass damper to reduce oscillations of the front wing. Using a quarter car model, I studied the effect of a mass damper on a Formula 1 car in both, the time domain and frequency domain.

Some links which help in understanding the topic a bit more are -

1) Engineering Explained - Soft v/s Stiff Springs

2) Driver 61 - F1's Genius Damper Trick was so good, it was banned

3) Purdue University - Intro to Structural Motion Control

2

u/hamiltonincognito Feb 12 '21

I enjoyed you’re video. I’m a newer F1 fan 2021 will be my 4th season. And one of my favourite things about it is reading and learning about all the technical aspects of it. It’s not my professional field so there’s things I don’t always understand from a few sentences that you usually get in an article or something. Your video helped me have a better understanding of the mass dampener and what it did. As I knew of it and that it was banned but it exactly what it did.

2

u/notworki Feb 12 '21

Thanks, that really means a lot. Finding out how some of the technical aspects of the car works is one of my favorite things as well. The sport will never stop amazing us!

2

u/macmacma Feb 08 '21

good video, thank you!

1

u/rustyiesty Feb 08 '21

Always thought it was odd the J-damper was allowed instead, although that will now be banned as well