Which team, past or present, has brought the most innovation to F1

[E.B]

I will have to go with Lotus, for they brought more to the table in terms of innovation at a time when it was more a free for all of designer ingenuity.

Now the designers still have plenty of ingenuity but it is all more keyholed into exploiting loopholes more than re-inventing the wheel.

[Ralf's Girl]

Originally Posted by andy97

Tyrrell - the 6 wheeler, the high nose, the "X Wing" additional aerofoils, the completely filled in front wish bones.

Only the high nose can be considered to be succesful & enduring but the other ideas still showed a degree of lateral thinking on a very tiny budget.

I think Tyrrell are worth a mention as well - in fairness, the X Wings caught on in the late 90s, most teams had them until they were banned. They were seriously ugly though.

Can I mention Super Aguri for bringing a massive oven to a race to warm their tyres and then being surprised when the FIA told them it wasn't allowed?

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Are you sure about Lotus's goal being just about controlling the wheel movement?

I always thought Lotus's objective was about keep the aerodynamis surfaces level, as well as keeping the tires perpendicular to the road in corners, allowing for much higher levels of grip and control by eliminating body roll caused by the centrifugal forces on a car as it corners.

As to the question, Lotus.

I would also agree that Lotus has brought the most innovation to F1.

But there have been many significant innovations from other teams and individual designers, some which worked in the day, some of which have endured and some which have be 'ruled out'.

[Ralf's Girl]

Most innovation seems to fall into the 'ruled out' category these days. Whether you like double diffusers and F-ducts or not, it is rather stifling to the designers' creativity that they come up with this stuff and then it gets banned because other teams are annoyed that they can't figure out how to copy it...

[Wims]

Also whenever they get too clever the cars becomes just too quick and then the FIA have to ban all sorts of technology, setting us back to even more restrictive rules, then 5 years later they engineers have been clever enough to bring the cars back up to the same speeds and we repeat the process. F1 rules will become more and more restrictive as time passes on for this reason

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Wims

Also whenever they get too clever the cars becomes just too quick and then the FIA have to ban all sorts of technology, setting us back to even more restrictive rules, then 5 years later they engineers have been clever enough to bring the cars back up to the same speeds and we repeat the process. F1 rules will become more and more restrictive as time passes on for this reason

I have to agree with you on that. Even though it looks like we will see the return of ground effect and turbos in 2013, it eventually will be the same old story of technology versus restrictive ruling.

[fourWheelDrift]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I have to agree with you on that. Even though it looks like we will see the return of ground effect and turbos in 2013, it eventually will be the same old story of technology versus restrictive ruling.

That's fundamentally how F1 works and has been for many years. However I have always believed the tiny improvements pitted against incrementally more restrictive rules model is wrong. What is needed is a radical rule change that would make the cars substantially slower, then the engineers could go away and have a race to genuinely improve them without the need to immediately remove there gains to control speed. The cycle at the moment is too short which is why everything is converging on one solution and all variety is being bled out of the sport taking the overtaking with it. Trouble is the engineers resist any attempt to slow the cars significantly when what they should do is welcome it because it would open the door to real innovation again.

[stripedcat]

Originally Posted by Marbot

I'd have to go with Lotus. They even raced a gas turbine a couple of times, and were the first to test a type of semi-auto gearbox.

I didn't realise Lotus were the first people to do the semi automatic gearbox - I thought it was Ferrari! Oh well you learn something new everyday. Did Lotus's one had the paddleshift on the steering wheel or did it just do away with the clutch pedal and have a gate type gear change?

[wnut]

For those of us interested in innovation.

I know its not F1 but WOW.

http://sitepalace.com/donmichael/reece/reece.html

As it is a slow part of the season, Supermodified racing which BJ introduced me to on this forum is just plain awesome.

ISMA super modified racing

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=L5xUSL...layer_embedded

ROC supers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiFfi...eature=related

[wnut]

Link corrected

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5xUSLCp3Rk

[bravo]

Originally Posted by foreversideways

Actually just reading the comments reminded me of just how sterile F1 is now, other than geeks i doubt most people couldn't identify which F1 car was which if they were all turned out in white.

Off Topic.. Anyone got a bunch of photos, photoshop, and a couple of hours free?

I think a thread with photos of all the cars blanked out, would be damned interesting!

On Topic.. Brabham for the change of tactics re-introducing fuel stops (regardless of my personal opinion on them).

[Marbot]

A touching story about a boy with one hand, an F1 team, and an i-LIMB.

http://www.pitpass.com/44459-Mercedes-bionic-man

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by andy97

Tyrrell - the 6 wheeler, the high nose, the "X Wing" additional aerofoils, the completely filled in front wish bones.

Only the high nose can be considered to be succesful & enduring but the other ideas still showed a degree of lateral thinking on a very tiny budget.

Honourable mention for Renault, too, for introducing the turbo back in the 1970s.

This is my vote as well...