F1 2011 Ride height and Rake

[ViscountL]

During the 2011 Formula One season, due to the exhaust blown diffusers some teams ran their cars with high rear ride heights for better downforce. Notably Red Bull, McLaren and Lotus-Renault.

In the game, for the majority of tracks people have both their front and rear ride height at 1, but I was just wondering if anyone has tried setting their car up with a higher rear ride height than the front and gained any benefit from it?

I tried it briefly at Montreal (front ride 1 & rear ride height 3) and felt that it was slightly faster, but my laps were too inconsistent to truly say if it was faster or not.

 

[David O'Reilly]

I have tried it in only one setup session. In theory it should shift balance forward slightly.
I found no benefit and if anything it was a little worse dropping the idea very quickly.

 

[Steve Greenwood]

I agree with David, as most F1 cars run with rake I have tested this but not found it advantageous, however as there are no values given for ride height (like most settings in this game) No 1 front might well be lower than No 1 rear? allowing 1-1 2-2 etc to work fine, just a thought.

 

[ViscountL]

Cool. It was just a thought, since online with cars set to equal the Lotus-Renault for example is notably slower than most of the other cars. When you're driving it at speed, if you look behind there are sparks constantly coming out of the back as if the car is scrapping along the ground. So I was wondering if the ride height could be part of the key to making it as fast as the others.

 

[Steve Greenwood]

I've noticed that on the Force India too, I have ran 1-2 and 2-2 but didn't find it any quicker than 1-1

 

[Chris Forsyth]

in the game the cars don't have exhaust blow defuser, not even the red bull

 

[Steve Greenwood]

in the game the cars don't have exhaust blow defuser, not even the red bull

You've hit the nail on the head here, it's a game NOT A SIM and you have to play the game which in many ways does not simulate the real world physics, lets face it 99.9% of us would agree that the HRT and Williams are two of the best cars in on-line "equal" mode which goes to show how far from the real world this game can go.

 

[David O'Reilly]

I agree with David, as most F1 cars run with rake I have tested this but not found it advantageous, however as there are no values given for ride height (like most settings in this game) No 1 front might well be lower than No 1 rear? allowing 1-1 2-2 etc to work fine, just a thought.

That is my presumption too Steve.

 

[David O'Reilly]

Cool. It was just a thought, since online with cars set to equal the Lotus-Renault for example is notably slower than most of the other cars. When you're driving it at speed, if you look behind there are sparks constantly coming out of the back as if the car is scrapping along the ground. So I was wondering if the ride height could be part of the key to making it as fast as the others.

The Lotus and the Toro Rosso require some tweaking of ARBs and springs to then equal the other cars. Once set up properly we think they have the same lap time potential.
The sparks from the lotus seem to be just graphic and not slow the car.

With equal cars all the cars have power and grip as per the RB7. So the HRT and Williams will be as fast as any other. If you want real life you chose 2011 instead of equal.