Quote:
Originally Posted by Casper
Back in the old days active suspension was invented for one prime reason, to keep the car in a static state relative to the road surface so the aero worked at its maximum efficiency. This was during the era of sliding skirts and Alan Jones retired because the cars were so stiff it was affecting the drivers causing back problems etc. These days it would most probably be cheaper to allow it rather than use all the work arounds they do at the moment to try and keep the car level. It will be interesting next year because at the moment the high profile tyres form part of the suspension but with low profile tyres they will have to have working suspension or put the seats on suspension systems because the drivers will have major issues if the cars are rock hard on low profile tyres.
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That was during the ground-effect era. Sliding skirts were banned at the end of 198O for safety reasons, as cornering speeds became too high. The concern was, if the skirt was damaged by going over the rumble strip, whilst cornering for example, a sudden loss of downforce would cause the car to uncontrollably spin off.
To get round the ban, fixed skirts and an hydraulic system were used to lower the car's ride height than was legally allowed. Once the car had left the pits and was out on the track, the chassis was lowered, so the skirts could then operate at this lower height. This resulted in the cars being very stiffly sprung. These fixed skirts were eventually banned at the end of 1982.