Scott Mansell recently sent out an email describing the 1980 Williams Racing F1 team’s attempt to improve their ground effect car, by removing all the suspension.
This, he says, resulted in
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–Perfect aero platform stability
–Minimal weight transfer
–Lower possible ride height
–Maximum ground effect efficiency
Alan Jones, the driver, found that the car was faster without any springs, but it was shaking him to pieces and couldn’t be used.
Today’s invention repeats this experiment but isolates the driver from vibrations, by fitting a heavily sprung and damped driver compartment.
This would contain the seat, steering and pedals, but the connections between the compartment and the rattling chassis could all be, these days, electronic.
Sensors would detect the steering column and pedal positions but without mechanical contact between these and the ground. Drivers would hate the lack of feedback -until they started to win races.
