Renault's "aero suspension" deemed illegal

The FIA ruled against Renault's "Tuned Mass Damper" as illegal, which leaves the team scrambling to accomodate this in their design.

As I understand (after reading from various sites), the Tuned Mass Damper is a mass of approximately 10 kg, at the back of the cars nose, that reacts on a spring against the movements of the chassis and this results in a much smoother ride over bumps and kerbs. This system that was invented by Renault engineer Rob Marshall and has been in use for some time (specifically since the Italian GP last year)

Why is this illegal?

Not sure how many people have read the FIA rules, but I think I see why the FIA has declared the mass dampener illegal. If you read the rules, you will see that

• Section 10.3.3 states "Non-structural parts of the suspension members are considered bodywork"
• And if you look at the fi.com Technical Analysis for Germany you can see the mass dampener is a non-structural parts of the suspension members, so therefore is body work.
• Now rule 3.15 on bodywork and aero influence states that body work "Must remain immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car."
• Since the mass dampener is mobile (as it is designed), and a part of the body work is therefore illegal.

While a lot of teams have been known to use this innovation, the reason I think Renault will suffer the most is that their entire aero for the 2006 car has been designed around the TMD. And that is why their performance has slackened in the last few races (not taking credit away from Michelin for supplying pathetic tyres during the same time Renault has a gasp in performance...double whammy)

We'll see how the race comes by this weekend and the effect of this ruling on the performance of the Renaults.