1992 F1 Active Supension Benefits?

[Testdrive]

Active suspension was designed to keep the car in a condition which was optimal at all points around a circuit. So in low speed stuff the COP would want to be further forward - more front grip - and in high speed turns the COP more rearward - more controllable with understeer. Also, as fuel burned off through a race the COG would tend to go forwards, in those days the fuel tank was further back on the wheebase than modern long wheelbase cars, so the COP would want to shift accordingly to maintain handling balance.

The Williams system was relatively advanced compared to the McLaren one. Listen to Paddy Lowe's Beyond the Grid episode - McLaren were pre-programming theirs so that for every 1m increment of the circuit the attitude was controlled. The Williams system had more of an automated feedback loop based on speed, steer/brake input...etc so it was not suddenly surprised to be in the wrong part of the track (Ferrari's system lost where it was once and dumped Berger into the outside wall coming out of the pits). Williams also had some over-ride knobs and buttons in the cockpit so e.g. on a straight the rear ride height could be dumped to stall the diffuser and increase Vmax.

I tried to emulate Active Suspension in the Assetto Corsa simulator with a modded MP4/8 with a Lambo Engine of 750HP at 14500RPM at Estroil where supposedly Senna did 1.11.244 with the Lambo Engine.

I used a COG of 40%, frontal aero balance of 39%, ABS, Traction Control, using about 1.8CL on the floor diffuser.
The car thinks it's running at 2cm front and rear ride height all times, giving it optimal downforce and 39% Aero balance.

But I was thinking, active suspension with upward or downward forces to maintain the balance would give it more downforce, then a spring system. So I'm thinking I'm missing downforce from the active suspension.

If you were to put an active suspension car and a standard suspension car in a wind tunnel. I would assume, the downward forces will be pushed back up via active suspension giving it extra down-force. I guess also in cornering, left or right will push down hold the balance.

[stresseddave]

You're missing a trick there. One other advantage of active is that you can change the attitude of the cars along the straight. So you can get less drag and a higher top speed and then pitch down under braking to increase downforce at the expense of extra drag which is effectively free deceleration. I seem to recall that back then they were using distance counting to do that. Nowadays with RTK GPS you'd have even more capability. At least until someone sticks a GPS jammer in a high speed corner...

I'm getting all nostalgic now... it was 30 years ago that I was playing with this stuff.