F1 Car Ballast

[Try Hard]

Hey all, this isn't so much a question, more of a suprising observation I discovered whilst working with the Jordan guys over last week.

If anyone has a had a detailed look at the front end of the Jordan, under the nose you can see what looks like a camera housing, this is called the AWACS by the mechanics. However this isn't a camerea, and neither is it some clever aero trickery, it is simply a means for getting ballast as low and as far forward as possible in the car. Quite clever really, although I'm not sure about the effect on the under chassis flow, can't have too big an effect, other wise it wouldn't be there. (just to note, at the silverstone test the AWACS actually ran empty, and they had to shift some ballast out from under the skid plate, as the fronts were graing quite quickly)

The pic below shows the housing positioning.

However this isn't the furthest forward or lowest the ballast can go in the car.... in the(almost)words of rolf harris "can you guess where it is yet?"

Ed

[imull]

interesting. what do they use for ballast though?

Americas cup boats use teh safe isotope of uranium for ballast, is this allowed in F1?

[StephenRae]

A company local to me makes various mouldings for Formula1 teams....they only mould in lead so I guess that is what's used....imull you've probably just given F1 a way of spending even more money!

[Try Hard]

I did ask whilst at the test and it isn't just lead, its a material called Mallory, which is a alloy of tungsten, nickel and copper. I think they do use a number of materials though.

I think stuff like depleted uranium is banned for use in F1. Most of the ballast was located in the skid plate, I think it was about 50 kilos, although i don't know the exact weight.

So no guesses where the other positioning for ballast is?

[Goran Malmberg]

Is this in place for rollbars?
Goran Malmberg

[DaveStyles]

Originally posted by Try Hard
I did ask whilst at the test and it isn't just lead, its a material called Mallory, which is a alloy of tungsten, nickel and copper. I think they do use a number of materials though.

I think stuff like depleted uranium is banned for use in F1. Most of the ballast was located in the skid plate, I think it was about 50 kilos, although i don't know the exact weight.

So no guesses where the other positioning for ballast is?

covering the bottom of the front wing is all I can come up with...
but I doubt thats right.... after seeing the way they jump about with those front wings.....

do tell.....

[Try Hard]

Originally posted by DaveStyles
covering the bottom of the front wing is all I can come up with...
but I doubt thats right.... after seeing the way they jump about with those front wings.....

do tell.....

Close....

If you look closely at the lowest flap between the wing supports you can just see what looks like a small white tag. This is actually on a cover for a recess inside the wing. This recess can hold, IIRC, about 5kg or so of ballast. It's only between the wing supports though, and is quite small. Still, very clever I thought.

Ed

[Kid Prozac]

Originally posted by Try Hard
Close....

If you look closely at the lowest flap between the wing supports you can just see what looks like a small white tag. This is actually on a cover for a recess inside the wing. This recess can hold, IIRC, about 5kg or so of ballast. It's only between the wing supports though, and is quite small. Still, very clever I thought.

Ed

That will be there for changing the polar moment of inertia. Teams do this to change the responsiveness of the cars, contrary to popular belief, you dont want a low polar moment for all circuits. Circuits with high speed corners, you actually want a slight increase to make the car slower in its responses and hence more stable.

[Try Hard]

Yeah I can see your point there, having a nervous car in high speed stuff could put the grey hairs on quite quickly i imgaine....

[MarkNat]

Most f1 teams use densamet a trademarked tungsten alloy
its is also used for radiation shielding in industry