11 replies to this topic

[kodandaram]

gee ! i am a total asshole when it comes to technical terminology ! er..i have heard the F1 cars are so light that they need some extra weight to be added to them to keep in accordance with the min.wt.spec.and that extra wwt. is the ballast .. ? But what exactly does it look like .any description..where do they put it in place ? is it necessary to have a ballast attached to a car even if it conforms the rules? how does it effect lap times ?

[unrepentant lurker]

Originally posted by kodandaram
they need some extra weight to be added to them .... that extra wwt. is the ballast .. ?

ballast is a general word for extra weight. It's not a term specific to racing or F1. Ships often carry ballast when they have no cargo (just an example).

But what exactly does it look like .any description..where do they put it in place ?

Well, I've never actually seen their ballast. But I would guess they are flat slabs of lead or some other dense material. They put it against the bottom of the car to lower the center of gravity as much as possible to improve handling. Its distributed front to back in order to achieve a desired balance between understeer and oversteer.

Funny story from Hungary last year. DC said they had ballast right under the driver's seat. The ballast conducted the heat from the track right into his rear and he got a nasty burn off of it.

is it necessary to have a ballast attached to a car even if it conforms the rules? how does it effect lap times ?

I suppose not. But all the teams try do make their cars naturally underweight so they can play with the weight transfer a bit. A car that was 600kg without ballast would be slightly slower than a ballasted car if the ballast was placed intelligently.

Hope this helps.

[Spot]

They don't use lead, they use depleted uranium. You know, that stuff they've been using in 'Police Actions' recently, and causes deformaties...

[Manson]

I would think they use lead. Gold would be heavier but more expensive but then again F1 budgets... I have 45 lb. under my seat and another 30 behind the seat (lead ingots). Surprisingly, it's not easy to buy for a decent price. Go to a Scuba shop and get ready to bend over, $ 3-4 a lb.!!!

[Ickster]

Last year there was some talk about depleted uranium because of some of the armed forces that were (and in some cases, still) using it in shot. It may or may not be dangerous; I don't know anything about it really, although I have to admit that just saying 'uranium' gives me a bad feeling. As far as I know, F1 teams are still using it as ballast. There were a couple of threads within the last year or so about it; just search the BB for uranium, or for the most recent thread about it, go here:

http://www.atlasf1.c...&threadid=14420

[GunStar]

The DU (Depleted Uranium) wouldn't be a bad idea....

HACK,COUGH....

Just like the free flowing Mercury idea. Hazmat teams just to clean up a car wreck.

DU is safe enough when packaged properly and gives off just a little more radiation than background. If it was under your behind for 3 hours, it wouldn't be bad. Now, if you worked with it all the time, and were subjected to many 3 hour exposured without proper protection, it could be bad.

If, in a accident, the natural casing was cracked, a significantly highter amount of radiation would be unleashed. Probably best to not be near it for more than 10 minutes at a time. And if the stuff becomes a aerosol...and gets in your lungs...taking up smoking isn't gonna kill you as fast as this stuff.

[Pioneer]

Its pretty hard to render a metal aerosol. Depleted uranium is quite safe to handle provided you aren't eating it or oh say for example firing it at supersonic velocities at hardened metal targets.

[PDA]

Two metals are used as ballast: Depleted Uranium or Tungsten, becasue of their high density. DU is also used in golf club heads.
Cars are designed and built to be up to 50 kilos under the minimum weight. The ballast is attached to the inside of the monocoque tub at the position in which it will do the most good. i.e. as low as possible to lower c of g, and far enough forward to try to achieve a fore/aft weight distribution of about 45 front/55 rear. this is so that the front tyres can take an approximately equal share of the tyre loading (front tyres are a little narrower than rear tyres). two years ago, Stewart pushed the rules on positioning of ballast by inserting tungsten "washers" under the bolts attaching the plank to the underside of the car. They were quite large "washers". They were dsqed from the Spanish GP, and nobody now uses oversized "washers" in the plank. This was an imaginative attempt to get a small anount of ballast even lower in the chassis, showing the importance of lowering the C of G as much as possible. Unfortunately (for Stewart) the stewards thought differently.

[palmas]

Do you all fly often?
Most commercial airplanes use depleted uranium as balast!
The biggest problem is if it burns or gets pulverized. Any way is far better than mercury.

I would bet they use uranium in F1!

[imaginesix]

Originally posted by palmas
Most commercial airplanes use depleted uranium as balast!

What on earth would an airplane need ballast for, and why such hugely compact ballast?????

[Tech_Nut]

I don't know about ALL planes needing ballast, but I know far a fact that a 747 has several tons of DU mounted low down in the tail section. The exact reason, I beleive, is to correct an aerodynamic imbalance problem that could only be sorted otherwise by making the tail section about 50ft longer. I think many other widebody jets have to carry ballast too, but I'm not sure.

TN

[GunStar]

Planes need ballast to maintain their Center of Gravity (Cg). If this isn't maintained, control can go out the window. I'm a aviation buff, and particulary like the Convair B-58 Hustler (US). This plane, if the Cg wasn't maintained, would stand on it's tail and the crew would wind up looking the wrong direction (up), and the plane's engines would stall and Down they go:(

In the case of those planes, they would suddenly go straight down. Not much time to react....and many would die.