Why F1 Banned This Genius Device — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00- [Narrator] It's the case
2. 0:01that's been known as Spygate.
3. 0:04The World Motor Sport Council then found McLaren guilty
4. 0:07of unauthorized possession of Ferrari information.
5. 0:10- In 2007, McLaren was fined a $100 million dollars
6. 0:14for stealing engineering documents from Ferrari.
7. 0:17To this day,
8. 0:18(cashier dings) it's the largest fine
9. 0:19in the history of sports.
10. 0:22However, that same year,
11. 0:23Renault was caught stealing documents
12. 0:25from McLaren containing, among other secrets,
13. 0:27the diagrams for a device called the J-damper.
14. 0:31So what was Renault's fine for stealing?
15. 0:34(dramatic music)
16. 0:35Zero. Zero dollars for the same crime.
17. 0:41What?
18. 0:42According to the FIA,
19. 0:43the engineers at Renault
20. 0:44had certain fundamental misunderstandings
21. 0:48about the operation of the J-damper system.
22. 0:51And since Renault's actions based
23. 0:52on that misunderstanding
24. 0:53had no effect on the F1 Championship,
25. 0:56they didn't merit any punishment.
26. 0:57It's like stealing the teachers the answer key,
27. 0:59but then not understanding the key
28. 1:01and answering everything wrong anyways.
29. 1:04Like yeah, you cheated, but you cheated so bad
30. 1:07we're not gonna punish you.
31. 1:08Once the cat was
32. 1:09(cat screeches) out of the bag on
33. 1:10this mystery suspension device, almost every team
34. 1:14in F1 started using it.
35. 1:16But after 17 years, the J-damper has been banned for 2022.
36. 1:21But what is a J-damper?
37. 1:23How does it work?
38. 1:24And why is F1 banning it?
39. 1:26Today on B2B, we're gonna find out.
40. 1:29Let's go.
41. 1:30(upbeat music)
42. 1:36(neon lights buzzing)
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73. 2:44No! (car clattering)
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75. 2:46No big deal.
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77. 2:53Why do I like birds?
78. 2:54(screen beeps) Before we get
79. 2:55into the J-damper,
80. 2:56let's cover the basics of a traditional suspension setup.
81. 3:00First, you got your springs.
82. 3:01The springs absorb energy from a bump, pothole,
83. 3:04or possum in the road, and then release that energy
84. 3:07so it can return back to center.
85. 3:08That's why your car returns back to its normal ride height
86. 3:11after it hits a bump.
87. 3:12The problem with springs
88. 3:13on their own is that they oscillate.
89. 3:15Once a force is applied to the spring,
90. 3:16it'll continue bouncing up and down.
91. 3:18We can show you that using a graph like this.
92. 3:21The oscillations will eventually slow down
93. 3:23and get back to zero, but it takes a long time to settle.
94. 3:26You don't wanna hit a bump and they keep bouncing
95. 3:28around in your car for the next 30 seconds.
96. 3:30So we need to dampen those oscillations.
97. 3:33One way is by dissipating the energy causing
98. 3:35the oscillations.
99. 3:36The obvious example of this type
100. 3:38of damper is a shock absorber.
101. 3:40A typical shock absorber consists of a fluid-filled chamber
102. 3:43and a valve piston that pushes through that fluid.
103. 3:45The shock and spring are linked
104. 3:47so when the spring compresses,
105. 3:48so does the shock.
106. 3:50With every expansion and compression of the shock absorber,
107. 3:52that piston pushing through the fluid converts some of
108. 3:55that system's kinetic energy into heat energy.
109. 3:58So instead of spending time bouncing
110. 4:00up and down on oscillating springs,
111. 4:02the shock absorbers ensure that your car gets back
112. 4:04to its steady state quickly.
113. 4:06But dissipating energy isn't the only way
114. 4:08that a damper can reduce an oscillation.
115. 4:10What if, instead of just trying to dissipate the energy,
116. 4:13we actually use that energy
117. 4:15against the spring's oscillation.
118. 4:17That is where the J-damper comes in.
119. 4:20J-damper is just the code name McLaren used
120. 4:22to keep the device secret.
121. 4:24It's technically referred to as an inerter.
122. 4:27It's really hard to not accidentally say inverter,
123. 4:29but that's what the inventor named it
124. 4:31so that's what I'll call it.
125. 4:32When you invent cool things,
126. 4:33you get to name it whatever you want.
127. 4:35An inerter can take a few different forms,
128. 4:36but in this case, it consists of a threaded rod
129. 4:39and a flywheel.
130. 4:39As a force is applied to one end,
131. 4:41the rod pushes up through the flywheel,
132. 4:43causing it to spin,
133. 4:44This converts the linear energy into rotational energy.
134. 4:48Once the force is no longer applied,
135. 4:49the momentum of the flywheel is returned back
136. 4:52into the rod, making it want to continue
137. 4:54in that same direction that the force was applied.
138. 4:56If we apply force in the opposite direction,
139. 4:59the same thing happens
140. 5:00with the flywheel spinning the other way.
141. 5:02It's similar to those toy cars with the flywheels.
142. 5:04You turn that linear energy into rotational energy,
143. 5:07and then you use all that stored
144. 5:08up energy to keep the car moving on its own.
145. 5:10So, when a force is applied to a spring,
146. 5:13it momentarily stores that energy,
147. 5:15then releases it back in the opposite direction
148. 5:17of the initial force.
149. 5:18When a force is applied to a shock absorber,
150. 5:21it removes that energy from the system
151. 5:23by converting it into heat.
152. 5:24And when a force is applied to an inerter or a J-damper,
153. 5:27it momentarily stores that energy in the flywheel,
154. 5:30then releases it back into the threaded shaft
155. 5:33in the same direction as the initial force.
156. 5:36The important thing to notice here is that the spring
157. 5:39and the inerter both store and release energy,
158. 5:41but they release energy in opposite directions.
159. 5:44So if we an inerter into the system
160. 5:47and it's properly tuned to the spring
161. 5:49and expected forces,
162. 5:50we can use this opposing energy
163. 5:52to dampen the spring further.
164. 5:54Another way to picture this is by looking back
165. 5:56at those oscillation graphs from before.
166. 5:58Any wave can be diminished
167. 5:59by producing destructive interference,
168. 6:02which is making another way that conflicts
169. 6:04with the original wave.
170. 6:05An interfering wave is one
171. 6:06which ideally has a similar amplitude,
172. 6:09but which is out of phase,
173. 6:10meaning it crosses the center line
174. 6:12at a different time or moving in the opposite direction.
175. 6:15If we plot the force of the inerter acting on the spring,
176. 6:17we end up with a wave like this.
177. 6:21Some dampening does occur due to the initial startup
178. 6:24with getting that flywheel spinning,
179. 6:26but the big dampening comes in with what happens next,
180. 6:29with the interference produced when the spring rebounds.
181. 6:32For the spring to extend,
182. 6:33it has to overcome the stored energy
183. 6:34in the spinning flywheel to slow it down
184. 6:37and reverse its direction.
185. 6:38In other words,
186. 6:39the spring has to fight the flywheel's rotational inertia,
187. 6:42hence the name inerter.
188. 6:44Because the flywheel is resisting the spring's extension,
189. 6:47the rotational energy in the flywheel is
190. 6:49out of phase with the energy in the spring.
191. 6:52So as the spring extends and compresses repeatedly,
192. 6:54that oscillation continues feeding energy
193. 6:57into the flywheel,
194. 6:58and in turn feeds that energy back out of phase,
195. 7:01interfering with and dampening the oscillations
196. 7:03of that spring.
197. 7:04This out of phase wave ends up canceling
198. 7:06out the way wave from the spring's natural frequency.
199. 7:09This, this may well be the most complicated B2B
200. 7:12we've ever made.
201. 7:14So, are inerters better dampers
202. 7:16than shock absorbers?
203. 7:17In theory, yes.
204. 7:18Instead of simply dissipating the energy
205. 7:20from oscillation,
206. 7:21an inerter turns that energy back onto itself
207. 7:24and should be able
208. 7:25to fully eliminate oscillations more quickly
209. 7:27than an energy dissipating damper like a shock.
210. 7:30That sounds great, right? - [Crowd] Yeah!
211. 7:32- Well, yeah, but there are also a couple of problems.
212. 7:35One, when you wanna get rid
213. 7:36of those high amplitude oscillations,
214. 7:38you need a flywheel that has a lot of mass.
215. 7:41Guys in F1, they don't like heavy stuff.
216. 7:43Don't tell your mom. (audio distorts)
217. 7:44So say you don't wanna make it heavier,
218. 7:45well, how about you increase the diameter of it?
219. 7:47You put the mass further away from the center of rotation.
220. 7:51Well, now you have a large object
221. 7:52that you need to try to fit into your F1 car.
222. 7:55That's kind of tough to do.
223. 7:56There's not a lot of space you can work with.
224. 7:57Because F1 parts need to be light and compact,
225. 8:00the dampers of choice are not inerters.
226. 8:02They're the energy dissipating shock absorbers
227. 8:04that use gas and oil to turn oscillations of the springs,
228. 8:08technically torsion bars in F1, into heat.
229. 8:11But F1 is all about squeezing every last bit
230. 8:14of performance out of the technology available.
231. 8:16And even though the inerter couldn't be used in conjunction
232. 8:19with the stiff torsion bars for the primary suspension,
233. 8:22there was a smaller spring light component
234. 8:24whose oscillation needed to be dealt with,
235. 8:26the tires.
236. 8:28Undamped tire oscillations have a huge impact
237. 8:30on mechanical grip.
238. 8:32And the only way to prevent the tires' oscillations
239. 8:34from upsetting the grip and balance of the car is
240. 8:36to use a mechanical device like a J-damper.
241. 8:39Ordinary suspension components like shock absorbers struggle
242. 8:42to combat such small vibrations.
243. 8:44Small movements of a shock's piston,
244. 8:46it can't build the pressure needed to generate heat
245. 8:49and dissipate energy.
246. 8:50And shocks compress and extend relatively slowly compared
247. 8:53to in an inerter.
248. 8:54But even small, low amplitude,
249. 8:56or rapid oscillations will rotate an inerter's flywheel,
250. 8:59putting the energy into it
251. 9:01that can be fed back to damp that oscillation.
252. 9:04When used in combination with springs
253. 9:06and traditional shock absorbers,
254. 9:07inerters provide a high level of dampening control
255. 9:10over specific oscillations.
256. 9:12And that's why nearly every F1 team uses them.
257. 9:14So why are J-dampers being banned for 2022?
258. 9:18Well, it's Formula 1
259. 9:20where the answer is often the same.
260. 9:23Money.
261. 9:24(upbeat music)
262. 9:27- [Narrator] A bunch of wine cold.
263. 9:28- Mercedes has won the Constructors' Championship
264. 9:31for seven years in a row,
265. 9:33and they spend more money than any other team,
266. 9:35reportedly as much as four times what Williams spends.
267. 9:39To combat that inequality
268. 9:40and make a more interesting series,
269. 9:42the FIA is instituting a spending cap.
270. 9:45To do that, they have to mandate that cars get simpler.
271. 9:48Certain parts are being eliminated
272. 9:49and the inerter is one of them.
273. 9:51As part of that simplification,
274. 9:53the FIA also wants the technology of F1 cars
275. 9:55to be more like road cars.
276. 9:57And they say things like,
277. 9:58"Inerters simply have no relevance to ordinary cars."
278. 10:01But it's not all bad news
279. 10:03because the primary role of inerters is
280. 10:05to damp oscillation specifically from the tires,
281. 10:08and those occur predominantly in the tire sidewalls.
282. 10:12Well, beginning in 2022,
283. 10:13F1 will be moving from a 13" wheel to an 18" wheel,
284. 10:17meaning tire sidewalls will be much shorter and stiffer,
285. 10:20and less prone to oscillations.
286. 10:22With that difference, the once game-changing inerter
287. 10:25may not be necessary after all.
288. 10:27And if you really wanna find out
289. 10:28for yourself what all this inerter stuff is about,
290. 10:31Cambridge University and Malcolm Smith,
291. 10:33the inventor of their inerter,
292. 10:35has licensed the technology to Penske
293. 10:37who will happily sell you one of these bad boys
294. 10:39for a low price of $18,000.
295. 10:43The B2B motto, "Cool things cost money,
296. 10:46but you don't need money to be a cool thing."
297. 10:50Put that on a t-shirt and send it to your mom.
298. 10:52Thank you guys so much for watching this episode of B2B.
299. 10:56Follow us here at Donut on Instagram @DonutMedia.
300. 10:58Follow me @JeremiahBurton.
301. 11:01Till next week, bye for now.
302. 11:04♪ Love is love, adidodos ♪