Conventional wisdom last year was wrong. Take Monza, the lowest of low downforce tracks. How come McLaren cantered to victory at that circuit if Ferrari has better high speed aero efficiency?

The answer is that working out which team owns each track isn't trivial. The implicit assumption is that it is all down to aerodynamics but that is wrong. There are a host of other factors that affect performance and the importance of those factors varies by track.

At Monaco the most important factor is how well the car responds to bumps and kerbs, particularly when cornering. Street circuits are a lot more bumpy than proper race tracks and this places a lot more stress on the suspension. A better suspension system translates to track advantage.

And guess what? Last year McLaren pioneered a new technology called the J-damper that gave the team a crucial advantage in Monte Carlo

How does it work?

Great question. The problem that J-dampers (or mass dampers for that matter) were trying to fix was responding to the natural frequency of the tyres.

Consider a tyre when racing — it has a massive vertical loading on it. Moreover, this vertical loading changes during acceleration, braking and cornering. The sidewall of the tyre effectively becomes a spring and reacts as such — in other words the tyres oscillate at a natural frequency.

During this oscillation the tyres can act against the suspension and lessen the load on the contact patch between the tyre and the road. The J-damper is designed to damp (reduce) this motion, which increases traction and allows greater cornering speed.

The advantage we're talking about here is about 0.3s — which is about the time Renault gained after they introduced J-dampers in Spain.

Okay, we understand what the J-damper is trying to do but how does it work?

There is a description in the Renault-McLaren spy trial about J-dampers. They are described as "a damper with a spinning mass inside".

What happens is that when the suspension moves, the mass will start spinning. Effectively, the energy from the tyres and suspension is being converted into the rotational energy of the mass. This serves to dampen the oscillations of the tyres, which increases traction.

Craig Scarborough has more details on how J-dampers work.

What will it mean for 2008

McLaren perfected the technology and were one of the few teams to race with it last year. Since the spygate saga, McLaren's secrets have been widely available and it is no surprise to see nearly all the main teams deploying some form of J-damper.

As first adopters, one would expect that McLaren still retains a slight advantage with its implementation. Whether that is enough to secure victory at Monaco remains to be seen.

For the good of this year's championship let's hope so.