Crazy technologies and innovations banned from Formula One
In 1978, British F1 team Brabham took the concept of suction to the extreme with its BT46B. Designer Gordon Murray (who went on to design the McLaren F1 supercar) added a fan, which sucked air out from underneath the car through the engine bay. A similar idea had previously been tried by American designer Jim Hall on his Chaparral 2J, in the Can-Am Series.
The Brabham BT46B debuted at the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix, and Niki Lauda drove it to victory after qualifying third. He and teammate John Watson had been instructed by the Brabham brass to take things slow in qualifying, so as not to tip the team’s hand. That was probably a good idea. Murray had exploited a legal loophole, claiming the fan was primarily for engine cooling. Other teams didn’t buy it, and the anger grew after Lauda’s win. Ever the politician, Brabham boss Bernie Ecclestone decided to retire the BT46B, rather than risk a fight over its legality.
SIX-WHEELED CARS
More power is always a good thing, but what about more wheels? Designer Derek Gardner thought so. His Tyrrell P34 had a pair of normal-size tires at the back, but four 10-inch tires at the front. Why? Gardner said the four small front tires offered more grip, but there may have been an aerodynamic advantage as well, since the smaller tires tucked neatly behind the front spoiler. At any rate, the P34 wasn’t successful. Over two seasons of competition (1976 and 1977) it only won one race. But the P34 remains one of F1’s most iconic cars.
Tyrrell’s lack of success didn’t stop other teams from trying the six-wheeler concept. March unveiled a car with four full-size rear wheels in 1977, but couldn’t find the funding to finish it. Ferrari toyed with the idea of putting four wheels on a single rear axle – like a “dualie” pickup truck. Finally, Williams built a prototype six-wheeler – the FW08B – in 1982. Like the March, it had two wheels in front and four in back – all the same size.
Williams believed the six-wheeler design would make it easier to package aerodynamic aids, and got some promising initial results in testing. But the FW08B never raced. Six-wheeled cars were banned ahead of the 1983 season.
TRACTION CONTROL
Like active suspension, traction control is a technology that has become common in modern road cars, but is no longer used in F1. Traction control uses electronics to monitor for wheel slippage, and intervenes to stop the wheels from losing grip completely. It can be a lifesaver on a slippery road, as well as a handy advantage on a racetrack.
Traction control was eliminated in the sweeping ban of electronic aids at the end of the 1993 season. Rule makers wanted to make driving more challenging, and lessen the advantage of the most well funded teams. Ironically, traction control arguably had its biggest moment in F1 while it was banned.
In 1994, the Benetton team was accused of using traction control, prompting an investigation by F1’s governing body, the FIA. Analysis of the Benetton B194 race car’s computers showed suspicious software, which the team claimed was inactive. With investigators unable to prove that Benetton had actually used the software to enable traction control, the matter was dropped. Michael Schumacher went on to win the 1994 championship – the first of seven for the German – but the traction-control caper is still a topic of debate to this day.
The FIA ultimately found the traction control ban too hard to police, and the driver aid was reintroduced in 2001. It was banned again in 2008, when the FIA instituted a standardized electronic control unit to prevent teams from using illegal software.
EXOTIC FUELS
F1 teams work hard to maximize every aspect of the car – including the fuel that powers it. Oil companies have long invested in F1, looking to extract maximum performance from their products in the same vein as suppliers of engines, brakes, or tires. This all came to a head in the 1980s, when lax rules led teams down a rabbit hole of exotic fuels.
Even F1 teams value fuel efficiency. More fuel means more weight, and weight is the enemy of performance. Extracting more energy from a given amount of fuel means a car doesn’t have to carry as much of it. A cap on car fuel capacity and a ban on refueling added urgency to the quest for more potent fuels. This led to some extreme measures. Honda and Shell created a fuel that was almost pure toluene – a known carcinogen. The two companies were so proud of their toxic concoction that they published a technical paper on it, according to Autoblog.
Carcinogenic fuel is not a good thing, and new rules were eventually instituted to curb these excesses. Beginning in 1993, organizers mandated that F1 fuel must be similar to regular gasoline and put an end to most shenanigans. Teams still try to tweak their formulations to gain a performance advantage, however. Some have even tried burning engine oil in order to extract more performance.
SHARK FINS
Modern F1 cars are all about aerodynamics. But with most of the low hanging fruit either banned or fully exploited, it’s all about incremental improvements. That’s why current F1 cars are festooned with add-ons that look like carbon fiber Chihuly sculptures, and why they briefly grew fins.
Shark fins were introduced as part of a major overhaul of F1 car-design rules for the 2017 season. The engine-cover fins were designed to work with smaller rear wings, changing the aerodynamic equation somewhat. Some teams tried to find performance gains with the new setup. Others found the fins to be a handy place to put car numbers.
However, shark fins were nixed after just one season. They just didn’t prove popular with teams, some of which felt they made the cars look ugly. In what ended up being the deciding vote on the matter, McLaren boss Zak Brown complained that shark fins didn’t leave enough space on the car for sponsor logos.
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