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Banned! archive
Banned! Ground effects
7 June 2007 by Keith Collantine
The last in our series looking at F1 technologies that were banned looks at one innovation that the governing body were surely right to get rid of.
Indeed, had they stepped in more quickly to rid the sport of ground effect cars, a series of terrifying crashes might have been avoided - and lives might have [...]
Banned! Tuned mass dampers
31 May 2007 by Keith Collantine
The biggest technical controversy of last season was the banning of Renault’s ‘tuned mass damper’ suspension system.
It put Renault’s championship defence in jeopardy and seriously questioned the impartiality of the FIA. Many in the paddock suggested the governing body were trying to engineer a final championship victory for the retiring Michael Schumacher.
In a strange situation [...]
Banned: McLaren’s rear brake pedal
24 May 2007 by Keith Collantine
Of the dozens of technologies banned by F1’s governing body through the years, McLaren’s rear brake pedal stands out as one of the most unjust bannings.
It was banned early in 1998 as McLaren made a stunningly dominant start to the year. Following a protest by Ferrari the system, that had previously been declared legal, was [...]
Banned! Active suspension
17 May 2007 by Keith Collantine
Active suspension was perhaps the final great innovation of the Lotus team under Colin Chapman. It was a means of keeping the car’s ride height level despite the constant bumps and undulations of Grand Prix circuits, to maximise grip and aerodynamic efficiency.
Lotus’s began developing the idea before his death in the winter of 1982. Ten [...]
Banned! Traction control
12 April 2007 by Keith Collantine
Not many F1 fans were disappointed when the news broke two weeks ago that traction control was being kicked out of the sport.
But this is not the first time that traction control has been banned - last time it happened all kinds of problems arose, not least of which safety, policing and politics.
Can a ban [...]
Banned! X-wings
5 April 2007 by Keith Collantine
Over a pint a former Tyrrell mechanic once told me where the idea came for the hideous ‘X-wings’ that the team brought to the sport came from.
This was in 1997, at which point the team was in its death throes - the last year in which boss Ken Tyrrell was still at the helm.
The perennially [...]
Banned! Turbos
29 March 2007 by Keith Collantine
In a past edition of Banned! we looked at the gas turbine engine and noted the myriad flaws that prevented from being a competitive prospect in F1 racing.
But who can say those flaws might not have been rectified in the laboratory of high-teh car development that is Formula One?
For one example of an F1 engine [...]
Banned! Four wheel steering
22 March 2007 by Keith Collantine
Of all the exotic technologies to be banned from Formula 1 through the years, four wheel steering could perhaps be the only innovation to have been developed after it was outlawed.
The FIA made clear early in 1993 that ‘driver aids’ would be banned for 1994. A range of technologies were included in that all-encompassing phrase [...]
Banned! Slicks
15 March 2007 by Keith Collantine
Grooved tyres - surely the greatest anachronism in Formula 1 today?
No other major open wheel racing series uses them - not the Champ Car World Series, Indy Racing League, GP2, World Series by Renault, A1 Grand Prix - none of them.
In F1, of course, slick tyres have been banned for nearly a decade. Might we [...]
Banned! Gas turbine engines
8 March 2007 by Keith Collantine
Think of unconventional Formula 1 technology and you instantly think of Colin Chapman.
The Lotus boss, who died 25 years ago, understood that innovation was not just positive for its own sake, but that it also had publicity value.
His gas turbine powered 56B F1 car was plainly a case of the latter over the former. The [...]
