It should come as no surprise the engineers for the pinnacle of motorsports look at things a little differently than you and I. So much so that if you took a handful of Formula 1 chassis parts and dropped them on the average DIY garage dweller’s workbench, it is totally believable that we would not be able to say what a given part does. One of the more obvious places this happens on an F1 car is in the suspension, which while functioning similar to a road car—absorbing bumps, allowing the chassis to move as needed—looks nothing like what a road car would have. Case in point: Springs.
If you are reading this, the most common springs you might have seen on cars is either a coil spring or a leaf spring. These two designs are large, very tune-able, and quite affordable. F1 engineers are excited about the tunability and price (there is a budget cap after all,) but the size is a significant consideration when so much on the current cars comes down to aerodynamics-driven packaging. The frontal area of a car needs to be minimized and that means a big clunky coil spring suspension is not going to cut it, even when the coil is combined with the damper, relocated, and actuated with rods and rockers. Instead, engineers decided to decompress the spring and look at a new twist in the design.
Apparently, anything that returns to its original shape after being crushed or distorted can be a spring. Driver61 on YouTube recently had access to the 2022 Williams Formula 1 chassis and an engineer who worked on it, and took a deep dive into the parts and basic design of the current era’s suspension systems.
The two items that pique my interest most in this video are the tubular springs and the “heave spring.” The first really shouldn’t be shocking considering torsion springs have been in use for the better part of a century, but the simplicity of a torsion spring as used in the F1 suspension design is particularly intriguing. The amount of tunabilty in that single component based on the material choice, diameter, wall thickness, and more is wild considering the compact size. It’s still not a perfect solution though, which is where the heave spring comes in.
With the development of aerodynamic downforce aids over the years, the struggle in suspension has developed into one of striking a balance between being stiff enough to manage the immense aero on the straights and being able to corner effectively. The heave spring is some version of a bump stop that enables some compliance while also setting the ride height when the car is under full aerodynamic load. The “spring” in that? Mesh discs. Still no coils to be found.
With the way Formula 1 cars look and drive, it’s easy to think something as critical as suspension would be far more complicated, and to be fair it is once you try to tune the system. But the individual parts are relatively simple and robust. Assembling and adjusting those parts into a car that not only works but works well is a whole different challenge. Seeing a detailed breakdown of the suspension layout of a modern F1 car merely underscores the idea that individual parts are merely a fraction of a winning race car, and that engineers are constantly innovating to execute familiar principles in previously unfamiliar ways.
The heave spring is a bit different but anyone with an OBS Chevy 4×4 is familiar with torsion springs
Porsche has been the master of torsion springs for years. They can be very effective if used properly. Add proper dampers and the control and ride can be impressive.