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Started by Sara Lindt (@sara_lindt) ·

F1's banned (and secret) innovations, a list that kept growing

Started with the fan car and couldn't stop. McLaren's F-duct in 2010. Renault's mass damper, a sprung weight inside the nose, banned in 2006. Mercedes' DAS in 2020, where pushing and pulling the steering wheel changed the front wheels' toe.

6 sources · 1h 3m down the hole

How I got here

Started with
“most clever banned f1 innovations”
Ended at
Brabham BT46

The Trail

  1. “most clever banned f1 innovations” (google.com)
  2. McLaren MP4-25 (en.wikipedia.org)

    a hole in the cockpit the driver covered with a knee to stall the rear wing on the straights

  3. Tuned mass damper (en.wikipedia.org)
  4. Dual-axis steering (en.wikipedia.org)
  5. Inerter (mechanical networks) (en.wikipedia.org)

    the 'J-damper'

  6. Brabham BT46 (en.wikipedia.org)

What I came away with

Most of these weren't against the rules when they appeared; they found gaps and the rules closed behind them. The strangest is the 'J-damper': really an inerter, a mechanical component invented by a Cambridge engineering professor, which McLaren gave a deliberately misleading name to keep it secret.

Keep going