Inside Look: Camber

Camber is a common and extremely important part of a car's setup. In formula One, it is usually used in two ways. First off, the definition of camber. Camber is the amount that the wheel is tilted on a vertical axis. To illustrate this, put your arm in an L shape. This represents what the wheel looks like on a regular road car, straight up to the sky. Then pretend like your forearm is a clock, and move it back and forth. Your forearm represent Camber, and usually teams use 1-3 degrees of negative camber. Negative camber is your arm pointed inward, and positive is your arm pointed outward. Negative camber makes the car more stable in the corners and less  in the straights, and positive camber, the opposite. Ok, for another example of this, stand up, do you have more balance with your feet pointed inward, outward or straight ahead? Yes, that's right, the answer is a, inward. Now try walking with those three, pointed forward is now the winner, and inward is difficult.  

So, what does this have to do with F1? Well, camber is what Lotus is using to get a solid car at every race. They use more camber than other teams to make their car solid. It's not always the quickest, but it's a solid, reliable car, mostly due to their use of camber. Rear camber can also increase tire wear, which could be what's ailing Mercedes.

Thanks for reading!