F1 Madness

Tag: FRIC

  • Rosberg leads the pack in final practice

    Rosberg leads the pack in final practice

    Nico Rosberg topped the time sheets during the final practice ahead of qualifying for the German Grand Prix with a time of 1:17.779.

    Rosberg’s time is a surprising 0.601 clear of his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton.

    Despite a spin in at turn eight halfway through the session, Fernando Alonso recovered to set the third quickest time of the practice session, a mere 0.004 down on Hamilton.

    The Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas led much of the practice session on prime tyres, but ended up fourth and fifth respectively after the supersoft runs.

    Kevin Magnussen finished sixth after setting the pace during the opening stages of final practice, with Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen behind him.

    Raikkonen switched to options very early on, but was unable to continue in the final stages of practice due to a problem with his fuel pump. The Ferrari team are working ferverishly to change the fuel pump before qualifying gets underway.

    Red Bull’s performance was either lacklustre, or one big sandbag as reigning world champ Sebastian Vettel parked his car in ninth place.

    Nico Hulkenberg took the last spot in the top ten for Force India.

    Jenson Button had much complaining about understeer and problems with his braking during practice, most likely a result of no longer having FRIC suspension. None of the teams will be running FRIC this weekend after it was deemed illegal by the FIA earlier this week.

    Full timesheet for the session is below. Please join us on Twitter @F1_Madness for qualifying later this afternoon at 14h00 GMT +2.

    FP3 Final practice timesheet, Hockenheim

    Photo credit: Mercedes

     

     

     

  • Formula One FRIC Suspension

    In 2009 Brawn GP had the double diffuser, in 2010 McLaren had the F-Duct, 2011 saw Red Bull pioneer and perfect exhaust blown diffusers. In 2012 we had Mercedes bring out the Double DRS. Every year in Formula One there is a new development that one team brings out and is touted as a game changer, which naturally teams complain about the legality of such a device, but eventually end up copying.

    The Lotus F1 team uses the FRIC suspension
    The Lotus F1 team uses the FRIC suspension.
    Photo: Lotus F1 team

    It is no different in 2013. The new development this season is the FRIC suspension. FRIC stands for Front and Rear Interlinked suspension, which is being used by Mercedes and Lotus as far as we can tell. The basic principle behind FRIC suspension is to essentially keep the car at a constant ride height under braking, acceleration and during cornering.

    This is not a new technology, it’s merely a redevelopment of the early active suspension that Williams ran on their FW14 and FW14B in the early 1990’s, which was subsequently banned for the 1994 season.

    The only difference between today’s FRIC system and Williams’ is that the FRIC system is totally passive and it is not controlled by any electronics. Which makes it perfectly legal and falls within the FIA technical regulations.

    The FRIC suspension controls the pitch and roll of the car. Pitch is when a car’s nose dives under braking, the weight and balance of the car gets transferred forward. During acceleration the weight and balance of the car shifts towards the rear, the nose of the car lifts up. Roll is when a car corners the weight and balance of the car gets transferred to the opposite direction of the turn. I.e. if you’re turning right, the weight and balance of the car gets transferred to the left and vice versa.

    The FRIC system passively controls the pitch and roll of the car by moving hydraulic fluid through a series of pipes, valves and cylinders to keep the car at a constant ride height.