In today's qualifying, Steve Matchette said: cars may have to "...reduce nose weight..." for running in the rain. WHy? How does this improve rain performance vs. create terminal understeer? How is that accomplished? Using the pushrods to raise the front thereby transferring weight to the rear? Pls advise, thanks,

BV

bv911 - 05 July 2008 02:39 PM

In today's qualifying, Steve Matchette said: cars may have to "...reduce nose weight..." for running in the rain. WHy? How does this improve rain performance vs. create terminal understeer? How is that accomplished? Using the pushrods to raise the front thereby transferring weight to the rear? Pls advise, thanks,

BV

Because the rain has much reduced cornering G, literally half or more compared to a dry course, the weight balance in the car needs to be changed, the fronts would have way more grip than the rears and would actually oversteer with the reduce weight in the rear and the front having more grip. I believe this what Steve Matchett is stating.
Rain setups are based on getting as weight as fast as possible to each corner that needs it, things that are typical IF THEY KNOW IT WON'T dry out or presume it won't: Add wing (downforce), remove the compression dampening in the "low speed" (used in weight transfer) and remove anti roll forces (ARB attributes, as some F1 cars have no anti roll bar), move brake bias (driver adjustable) towards the rear
...extreme changes (ones that you can't change quickly in pitlane) are softer springs, raise the ride height..all around the car (to prevent hydroplaning of the bottom of the car) and removal of any roll control,

The only problem with Steve's comment is they can't make those changes to the car in qualifying! It would be cool if they could have electronic weight distribution although that would probably make for some very boring racing though...