Unaware of its effect on the contact patch, I initially saw the device as a means to prevent the front wing pitching downwards when braking. The FIA citing a movable aerodynamic effect as the reason for its ban. It was subsequently banned on what proved to be false grounds. Renault first raced the TMD in 2005, its discovery by Giorgio Piola around Monaco of that year both forced a development race and an enquiry by the FIA. With the TMD a weight is suspended on spring to offset the same forces being fed into the chassis as the Inerter. The Inerter predates Renaults TMD, which aimed to achieve the same effect. The Renault 2006 Front Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) - Copyight: Craig Scarborough Co-incidentally this article is cited in the patent documentation! It wasn’t until May 2008 that I was able to understand and expose the details of the Inerter concept, publishing its details in (subscribers only ). Until the “Spygate” saga in 2007, when the design was referenced as both the “J-Damper” and “a Damper with a Spinning Mass”. Being placed in the same position as a Heave Damper it was well hidden and unknown to most people.

In size and construction the Inerter looks like any other damper. McLaren took up this idea and tested the idea in 2004 then went on to race an Inerter in 2005. In 2003 Cambridge Universities, Dr Malcolm Smith proposed a mechanical method of controlling these loads via the Inerter. Being able to counteract these uncontrolled forces in a suspension will allow the tyre to main better contact with the ground for more consistent grip. Their spring effect goes undamped and hence is largely out of the control of the teams in setting up the car. We understand the role of springs and dampers, but there remain other spring effects within the suspension system, not least from the high profile tyres. My attention was drawn to this development by Italian Mechanical Engineer Rodolfo De Vita, a specialist in Torsional Dampers and Dual Mass Flywheels (DMF).īecoming ever more complex the suspension in an F1 car has a number of devices to counter loads fed into the chassis, in order to maintain the ideal conditions at the tyre contact patch. The intellectual property rights to this development have been safeguarded by Patent, allowing the details to be freely accessible in the pubic domain (the source for the picture at the top of this article). A cross section of the patented Fluid Inerter

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