Entry 6 - Rotations & camber angles

As we saw in the previous entries, angles do have a significant impact on car performance. As a matter of fact, their importance is not limited to the floor of the car but also to other parts such as the front wheels.

When we talk about tyre camber, we refer to the lean angle front wheels have (yellow rays) in comparison to the vertical axis of the surface (blue rays). These transformations can be seen as rotations, if we consider the intersection of the axis and the surface itself as the rotation centre (white dots).

A common alternative is to take as a rotation centre the intersection of the middle of the tyre and the steering axis (blue dots).

We speak of neutral camber when both angles equal 0º, negative camber when the front right tyre has a negative angle of rotation and the front left has a positive one (just like in the example above), and positive camber when the opposite happens.

Finally, here's a very insightful video in case you'd like to understand in depth the usefulness and importance of tyre camber in Formula 1 cars.