Ferraris nya rEVOlutionerande bakdämpning

Schweinfurt, 23 July 2004 - When Ferrari presented the F2003-GA at the beginning of last year, the ears of attentive listeners pricked up: aerodynamic genius Rory Byrne was talking about a completely new rear suspension development. Yet the specifics of what was new about Ferrari's rear suspension have been kept under close cover so far, and for good reason: trying to spy out a competitor's concept, understanding and copying it - this is common practice in Formula 1. Copying the cars driven by Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello is, no doubt, well worth the effort: there's no denying the fact that the Scuderia Ferrari has become even more dominant after fitting their red racers with the new rear suspension. No less than 17 victories have been clinched by Ferrari's German-Brazilian drivers' duo since the new suspension component was first used at the Spanish Grand Prix in May of 2003 - including six one-two victories so far in the current season.

Despite all the secrecy: after more than a year, clever rivals have discovered what's behind the revolutionary new design: a develop-ment by ZF Sachs Race Engineering GmbH. The damper concept was revolutionised in a joint project with Scuderia Ferrari engineers.

Instead of the three conventional dampers of the rear suspension, two rotational dampers integrated in the rocker are now handling the bulk of the work, replacing two of the conventional dampers. The pivoted rocker is a type of "triangular lever arm" that diverts jounce and rebound motion from the wheel to the spring, anti-roll bar and - in previous systems - to the conventional dampers. The new rockers with integrated rotational dampers are high-tech made by Sachs. Now, the Formula 1 racers from Maranello are using only one conventional damper in the middle, which responds when the entire chassis - due to the downforce at high speeds, for example -
is pushed against the track.

Approximately nine months of development time were invested in the rotational damper. Briefly stated, the new system operates as follows: the motion of the rear suspension link during jounce and rebound is transmitted via the rocker to the spring and a rotary vane. The rotary vane "pumps" oil from one side to the other through valves with specifically defined oil ports to generate the necessary damping forces. The rotational damper consists of five main components contained in a housing machined from a billet of titanium meeting aviation industry specifications. The major know-how, though, is found in the particular sealing technology used, which ZF Sachs had previously tested in active anti-roll bar systems for production cars. When operating in the Formula 1 Ferrari, the damper is subjected to approximately 160 bar of internal pressure.

Rotational dampers offer a host of benefits: first and foremost, they save space, as the conventional dampers are omitted. The damper and rocker are now a single multi-functional component. This allows a more compact gearbox design and thus further improve-ments of aerodynamic efficiency. Besides space, rotational dampers save approximately 50 - 70 grams of weight - a significant reduc-tion in the high-tech world of Formula 1 racing. Also, there is con-siderably less thermal stress on the new rotational dampers than on the previously used conventional units integrated in the extremely hot gearbox. Like the conventional system, the new solution operates with non-adjustable dampers during Grand Prix weekends. Engineers calibrate the dampers prior to the competition based on the results of dynamometer and track testing. In case of changes to the car's set-up, the complete rotational damper is exchanged for another unit with different response characteristics. Last but not least, less moving parts within the system reduce overall friction, improving the damper's response characteristics and thus the car's handling. The unique number of exploits achieved by Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello clearly confirms the high performance capabilities of the rotational damper.

The engineering principle of the rotational damper has successfully passed its "baptism of fire" in motor racing, followed by the consistent delivery of superior performance on the world's circuits for more than a year now. Yet chances that normal road users will enjoy the benefits of this high-tech component tend to be
slim, as its price tag is ten times that of a conventional telescopic damper.
ZF Sachs AG, the Powertrain and Suspension Components division, develops and produces vibration dampers and other components for chassis regulation as well as car and CV converters and lutches. In 2003, the division generated sales of Euro 1.9 billion with 16,500 employees.

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Kul. Jag jobbade med bland annat vingdämpare när jag var på Öhlins. Undrar om den här är något liknande.

So??? Kolla på hälften av F1-fältet så ser du rotationsdämpare inbyggda i rockern.

/ Jonas Jarlmark

Visste jag inte. Det här gäller i och för sig 2003-bilen.

Från Atlas F1 och Tifosi-Club (eller egentligen ZF Sachs AG):