Talk:Suspension keel

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Zero-keel and understeer[edit]

Hi. This was added to the main page, unreferenced. I have removed it to this page as most of it is anecdotal, and the way in which it has been written does not make it clear exactly what is happening. How does changing where the suspension is mounted affect the performance in dirty air? Also, the Toyota TF105 was a single-keel car, while the TF105B was a zero-keel suspension geometry but retaining the now redundant keel. While the MP4/20 was completely keel-free, as was the TF106. In which case, what is the point about the 105B trying to say? And as far as I recall JV's off was the result of trying to brake hard on the marbles, and his lack of grip was more to do with that than anything else?

Another note of interest on the zero-keel design is how zero-keel cars react in dirty air (coming up behind another car, specifically in a attempt to overtake). Zero-keel cars would suffer massive understeer in these conditions, requiring the driver to go off the racing line to avoid the understeer, or use heavy breaking just to turn the car. Examples of this is in the 2005 British Grand Prix at Silverstone where Kimi Raikkonen in his zero-keel McLaren MP4/20 was suffering understeer when getting in the dirty air of the F2005 Ferrari cars, thus not being able to over take in a track that has a reputation of an overtaking friendly track. Another example in the 2005 season is Toyota introducing the TF105B for the later part of the season. At the time, Toyota Technical Director Mike Gascoyne copied the suspension mountings of the McLaren MP4/20. Toyota driver Jarno Trulli then complained about how the car didn't suit his driving style and how he was suffering major understeer while attempting to overtake others. It should be taken under consideration though that since the TF105B still had a single keel (using the suspension mounting stylings of the MP4/20), the understeering could be a result of the suspension mounting itself.

A final example would be the 2006 Canadian Grand Prix. Ralf Schumacher was having trouble driving his Toyota TF106, complaining of poor grip with Jacques Villeneuve in his BMW Sauber F1.06 catching up. In one of the corners, Ralf nearly came to a complete stop and Jacques tried to pass Ralf by going on the outside, however Jacques' zero-keel BMW Sauber suffered massive understeer while in Ralf Schumacher's dirty air and ended up hitting the wall, taking him out of the race.

Some comment and discussion on here would be good, or better still a decent reference for this behaviour. If you want to reinclude some of the points here, could you condense them and keep them encyclopedic. Cheers! Pyrope 12:10, 2 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]