The art of knowledge
One of the biggest bugbears I have with motorsport engineering is when people ask what is the optimum camber setting? Or what is the magic ride height relationship through a corner? Or is there a single metric to use for the lateral load transfer distribution through a corner?
To me, these questions not just miss the point, but also illustrate motor racing’s perpetual, and destructive, obsession with quick solutions. In recent years, this has been further amplified with engineering education moving away from first principles and seemingly becoming more interested in breeding a generation of computer-aided engineering jockeys.
The key to answering these questions is to know how to ask the right question in the first place. This is what we are going to be exploring in this article.
Make no mistake, the art of asking the right question doesn’t just form the basis of sound motorsport engineering, but is a critical life lesson. There is works, everything else comes out in the wash and questions such as those I listed at the beginning are a by-product.
