Since its inception in 1950, the Formula One world championship has been a breeding ground for cutting-edge technology never seen before on vehicles.
Some of the most famous creations in the sport include the carbon fibre monocoque, active suspension and paddle-shift gearboxes. Fortunately for those of us without the talent of Fernando Alonso or Sebastian Vettel, a lot of tech applied to the pioneering single-seat race cars trickles down to everyday machinery — meaning we get to experience it on the road.
We take a look at some of the best road car tech to come from Formula One.
Paddle-shift gearboxes
If you own a relatively-new automatic car today, the chances are you’ll have a set of paddles to change gears when you fancy putting it in manual mode.
That came from F1 in 1989 when Ferrari’s challenger — the 640 — had the tech fitted in place of a sequential stick shift in order to speed up times. It may not have been enough to win the constructor’s title that year — with McLaren taking honours — but the wheel-mounted shifters soon became the norm.
In fact, in the last few years, Ferrari road cars have dropped manual gearboxes entirely in favour of paddle-shift automatics.
Carbon-fibre chassis
Back in 1981, McLaren rocked up with an innovative carbon-fibre monocoque that was designed not only to improve safety of the car — but also make it much lighter.
Many at the time wrote it off as a silly idea, with the term “black plastic” thrown about the paddock in fear of it breaking far too easily and becoming a hazard in itself.
They were all proven wrong at the Italian GP that year, when driver John Watson was involved in a huge accident. He walked away from that, thanks to the carbon-fibre structure – with many teams soon adopting the concept.
Carbon-fibre soon started appearing on high-end supercars — most notably the Ferrari F40 — making them safe and light. The technology is still expensive and time consuming, meaning it remains mostly limited to expensive vehicles, although BMW brought it to the mainstream with the all-electric i3 using a carbon structure.
Adaptive suspension
A key selling point for many performance cars today is the addition of adaptive suspension — which adjusts itself for maximum grip through corners.
You won’t be surprised to learn this came from Formula One — in fact, the tech is even banned in the sport for just how much of an advantage it can bring.
Its most famous use can be traced to 1993 when Williams applied the tech to its FW15C. It was one of many advanced features of that car, which also included anti-lock brakes and power steering, but was cited as the most crucial in its success — with the car winning 10 of the 16 races entered that season. Following that, adaptive suspension was outlawed in F1 for concerns of it making the cars dangerously fast.
KERS
F1’s first dip into electrified waters came in 2009 with the introduction of Kinetic Energy Recovery System — or KERS, for short.
This system allowed drivers to use a short electrical burst of power to improve performance — designed mainly to aid with overtaking. It was absent for the 2010 season, before coming back the following year. The tech was developed further, with the sport now using mandated hybrid 1.6-litre V6 powertrains which feature an incredibly sophisticated ERS system.
A few road cars have taken on the technology — most notably the McLaren P1 and LaFerrari — in order to give drivers extra power at the press of a button.
Advanced traction control
Traction control itself wasn’t born from F1 — with the tech first appearing in road cars in the 80s — but adaptive and advanced systems seen on cars today can be traced to the sport.
While many road cars feature completely on or off traction control, adaptive systems modulate the amount of power reduction for optimal grip when under hard cornering — as well as being adjustable at the discretion of the driver in some cases.
These adjustable systems — much like many of these innovations — appeared on many cars in the sport throughout the 80s in the pursuit of faster lap times. Today, traction control is completely banned in Formula One, but we enjoy the fruits of the tech in road cars today.
