Max Verstappen and George Russell want F1 cars raised

[Farnborough]

Hopefully this would mean active suspension for 2026. F1 is about pinnacle of automotive racing tech not nerf wars

And anyone remember what the performance of the last really notable era of active suspension was like ? The Williams FW14b in utter dominance in the same ruleset as all the other teams, but far, far outperforming them.

Innovation will ultimately make use of these things, the more complex, the less people to FULLY understand how to run them to successful outcome.

[morefirejules08]

Or perhaps F1 has a genuine problem at the moment

Or perhaps current and future Mercedes drivers can stop whining and raise their cars if they hate it so much

I didn’t realise max drives for Mercedes, the more you know

[Stu]

…

Interesting quotes!

Only way to solve this is...

Hopefully this would mean active suspension for 2026. F1 is about pinnacle of automotive racing tech not nerf wars

It´s nosense that we can have active suspension even on a Toyota Corolla, but F1 can´t use it

Or perhaps F1 has a genuine problem at the moment

Or perhaps current and future Mercedes drivers can stop whining and raise their cars if they hate it so much

That´s what F1 teams do, slowing their cars down on purpose for driver comfort

When DF was limited because some drivers started to feel dizy due to high lateral G forces... do you think rulemakers should have kept those rules, and it was F1 teams who should limit DF theirselves to keep drivers safe? That is utter nosense. F1 teams job is building fastest possible cars within current ruleset. If safety is at risk, it´s FIA job to modify rules to ensure drivers safety

A Toyota Corolla will tend to use active suspension to improve the ride quality for the occupants without the usual negative performance connotations of a passive system that is ‘good’ for ride quality.
An F1 car will only use active suspension to improve car performance with no consideration of the effect on the occupant.
The only time since the discovery of the power of GE in F1 that a driver’s comfort has been considered is with the Lotus 88, and that got banned…

[Vanja #66]

I didn’t realise max drives for Mercedes, the more you know

Apparently, it's been settled already

[Farnborough]

There's already the tool and rules surrounding it to facilitate this right now.

Reduce the wear tolerance available to plank check points, but then everyone starts hitching about how it's checked, who is checked, the fairness of it, the "secret" targeting of their favourite driver in a conspiracy theory, etc, etc.

The plank IS there to stop them lowering excessive amounts and compromising safety, that should be used if this is a real concern.

[Stu]

There's already the tool and rules surrounding it to facilitate this right now.

Reduce the wear tolerance available to plank check points, but then everyone starts hitching about how it's checked, who is checked, the fairness of it, the "secret" targeting of their favourite driver in a conspiracy theory, etc, etc.

The plank IS there to stop them lowering excessive amounts and compromising safety, that should be used if this is a real concern.

Reintroducing the original lower floor edge would encourage an increase in ride height (somewhat counterintuitively).
Raising the floor edge has only encouraged lower ride heights.

[Vanja #66]

Reintroducing the original lower floor edge would encourage an increase in ride height (somewhat counterintuitively).
Raising the floor edge has only encouraged lower ride heights.

Absolutely

[Farnborough]

Reintroducing the original lower floor edge would encourage an increase in ride height (somewhat counterintuitively).
Raising the floor edge has only encouraged lower ride heights.

Absolutely

Didn't that enhance the "Porpoise" threshold though ? More air volume, enacting more mass modulation to then pull the chassis down in negative pressure as the total enclosure under the car exerts authority over the fixed mass of vehicle.

[bluechris]

I don't really understand the fuss about the ride height and the drivers feeling really? any driver who feels bad of the car he drives, he can speak to his team to make it not so stiff and to ride better. Why all this discussion? can you elaborate?
If the team dont do that, its their problem to solve.

[Mattchu]

"All the drivers have been speaking with F1 because it is a little bit unsustainable to keep running the cars like this," the Mercedes driver said.

None of them seem to particularly like these cars. the suspension is ran so stiff (even on the Red Bull) that slight bumps when hit at speed send a jolt through the whole car. We must have all seen it in Bahrain, albeit a quite bumpy track, whereby the head is moving like a jack hammer on every single car!

[bluechris]

"All the drivers have been speaking with F1 because it is a little bit unsustainable to keep running the cars like this," the Mercedes driver said.

None of them seem to particularly like these cars. the suspension is ran so stiff (even on the Red Bull) that slight bumps when hit at speed send a jolt through the whole car. We must have all seen it in Bahrain, albeit a quite bumpy track, whereby the head is moving like a jack hammer on every single car!

I think the Toto politics are not passing anymore.. anyway we will see.

[SiLo]

People seem to be conflating suspension stiffness with ride height. It's not solely an issue with ride height (though that is a component). The teams have to run the cars incredibly stiff to achieve a stable aero platform because the floors are so sensitive. If the floors were less sensitive, then they would run softer springs and dampers.

[Vanja #66]

Didn't that enhance the "Porpoise" threshold though ? More air volume, enacting more mass modulation to then pull the chassis down in negative pressure as the total enclosure under the car exerts authority over the fixed mass of vehicle.

Yes and no. Yes, it lowers the velocity at which the bouncing can start (all other things being equal). And no, this doesn't necessarily mean it would happen as much if the floor is designed with features that prevent this phenomena from occurring so wildly.

What I believe Stu refers to is the need to have a buffer height if you want to allow bouncing to happen and it happens at those highest downforce levels and lower floor edge enhances those downforce levels. Ferrari was often setup higher than RB to have this bouncing buffer in 2022 and still had more downforce even with (often) smaller wings.

Another thing that happened more easily with lower edges was actual mechanical floor "sealing", which can and did result in sudden and unexpected increases in downforce and this is why floor stays were allowed by the FIA - to keep those edges more rigid and avoid sudden gains and losses of downforce. Putting edges even lower than 2022 could force teams to raise their cars even higher. Otherwise, raising edges up only leaves teams with brining the car further down as a way to find more downforce

People seem to be conflating suspension stiffness with ride height. It's not solely an issue with ride height (though that is a component). The teams have to run the cars incredibly stiff to achieve a stable aero platform because the floors are so sensitive. If the floors were less sensitive, then they would run softer springs and dampers.

The specific complaint now, if I understood well, is that floors are so low at top speed that bumps at the end of straights hit the car very hard and cause discomfort.

[izzy]

It's a long term health issue, that F1 needs to fix. You can't go putting these huge loads into people's spines, the discs don't have a blood supply to keep healing themselves. But the sport loves the sparks, that's why they made them keep using titanium instead of depleted uranium! So the drivers are quite right to be complaining. It'd be very easy to put a g sensor in and set a limit.

[Stu]

Potentially (almost undoubtedly), reverting to the 13” wheel/tyre combo of the last regulation set would also lead to an increase in static ride heights.