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Hari Roberts, Head of Vehicle Dynamics
 
See also:
The car for 2002
The timescales
The design process
The regulation changes
Making it happen
The monocoque
The transmission
Front suspension
The uprights
Rear suspension
EJ12 - vehicle dynamics

"Analysing anything that can affect the car’s performance," is how Hari Roberts describes the work of the Vehicle Dynamics department, which he heads up. These days the department gets involved right from the very beginning of a new car taking shape. "The design side of vehicle dynamics is growing but it is not where we came from originally," says Roberts. "At first, our main role was involved in race engineering, trying ideas that race engineers would come up with at the track. These days, we are moving more towards design and so the department is more involved in the early stages of a car’s life and that’s the way it will progress, being able to spot any problems before they happen and finding improvements early on in the process.  We also run the seven post rig, which is more of a race team development than a design tool and much of the software is used for the race team, to simulate the car’s performance on specific tracks."

In the early design stages, the department looks at models of the car, running it through various simulations, paying particular attention to any new ideas put forward to see if they are worth pursuing. "With every design idea, you have to work out if it is going to make the car go quicker," explains Roberts. "We have ways of using the design information and coming up with likely lap time improvements or other quantifiable gains. The wind tunnel people do their own thing in this area, but we look at the effect of their aerodynamic ideas on other parts of the car.  Last year for example, there were big rule changes on the aerodynamic side and we looked at what we needed to do to get the best mechanical solution to fit the new aero package. We look at all the mechanical components on the car, as well as parts like brakes, which can have an effect on the aerodynamics."

As a specific example, the 2002 technical regulations have banned the use of electronic power steering, so the Vehicle Dynamics staff were called in to see how the new mechanical system would work. "It is going to affect the driver’s feel as the steering wheel will not react in the same way," continues Roberts. "We pass on our findings and they might impact on the strength of the steering column which might have to be made stronger to cope with the new additional forces.  We use various software programmes to study these things and we simulate either the forces exerted, or the way the parts move, depending on which parameter of the component has been changed."