Banned! archive
Banned! Six-wheelers
1 March 2007 by Keith Collantine
Complete the following sentence: Formula 1 cars need more ______ .
Power? Drag? Advertising space? No – F1 cars need more wheels. Six of them, to be precise.
At least four different teams experimented with the idea within a few years of each other, and they succeeded in producing some of the most hideous F1 cars ever [...]
Banned! Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT46B ‘Fan Car’
22 February 2007 by Keith Collantine
The 1970s was the decade of outrageous innovation that produced some of the most unusual cars ever to grace a racing circuit.
Many were hideous failures that disappeared into obscurity. But Brabham’s ‘Fan Car’ did somewhat better, achieving a 100% victory rate.
Which is to say it won one race, and then it was banned…
Banned! Rocket fuel
15 February 2007 by Keith Collantine
Today’s Renault team boasts back to back double championship successes.
But in their original incarnation they were caught out by a technical innovation from BMW that cost them what would have been their first championship.
What was BMW’s secret? An ultra-potent fuel that unleashed prodigious power from their turbo engines.
Rumours insisted this special brew was in [...]
Banned! – Beryllium
8 February 2007 by Keith Collantine
The banning of Renault’s mass dampers last year and the Michelin tyres in 2003 generated substantial press interest and controversy.
In contrast the banning of beryllium and its alloys from F1 cars and, in particular, their engines did not.
But that ban still rankled deeply within the team hit hardest by the rules change – McLaren.
Banned! Lotus-Cosworth 88 & 88B
1 February 2007 by Keith Collantine
Continuing our series on technologies that have been banned from F1, this week we look at a rare example of an entire car that was banned before it could even race.
Colin Chapman’s Lotus 88 was a victim of fraught political tensions at a time when the governing body and the British team were at each [...]
Banned! – Flexi-wings
25 January 2007 by Keith Collantine
Formula One is the pinnacle of motor racing, right? The fastest and most advanced racing cars in the world.
That may be true, but you wonder how much faster the cars would be if it weren’t for the rafts of innovations that have been banned over the years.
In in a new series we look at all [...]
