Timelines · Formula 1 · 5 of 7
A computer held the car perfectly level so the aerodynamics never stopped working.
1992·Renault RS3C/RS4 3.5 L V10·~760 hp·1992: 10 wins, 15 poles; both titles (Mansell, by round 11)·Active suspension, traction control, semi-auto gearbox
· THE STORY
By the 1990s a Formula 1 car’s downforce depended exquisitely on its exact height and angle over the road — and every bump, brake and corner disturbed it. The Williams FW14B replaced conventional suspension with computer-controlled hydraulic rams that repositioned the car fifty times a second, keeping its aerodynamic platform perfectly steady. It was so dominant the technology was banned within two years.
· WHY IT MATTERED
Sensors read the car’s height, roll and pitch hundreds of times a second, and hydraulic actuators pushed each wheel to hold the body exactly where the aerodynamicists wanted it. Grip stopped depending on springs and started depending on code.
· WHY IT MATTERED
A passive car rolls in corners and dives under braking, and its wings and floor lose suction exactly when the driver needs them. Held flat, the FW14B kept essentially all its downforce all the time — worth around two seconds a lap, an eternity in F1.
· WHY IT MATTERED
With traction control and a semi-automatic gearbox alongside, the FW14B made electronics the fastest component on the car. The FIA banned active suspension and driver aids for 1994 — one of the clearest cases of a technology outlawed for working too well.
· TRY IT
Load the car up in a corner and compare. The passive car rolls and its ride height wanders, bleeding away downforce; flick the active system on and the computer holds the platform level, keeping the aerodynamics at full strength through the whole corner.
Nineties aerodynamics were exquisitely sensitive to ride height — a few millimetres cost real downforce. The FW14B’s insight was that the suspension’s true job had become holding the aerodynamic platform still; the driver was almost incidental. It was banned for 1994.
Timelines · Formula 1 · component · Williams FW14B
The computer that knows exactly how much wheelspin is fastest — and holds the tyre there.
Wheel-speed on all four corners·Ignition cut / fuel trim within milliseconds·~8–12% depending on tyre and surface·Banned 1994; back 2001–2007; the 2008 spec ECU ended it
· WHAT IT DOES
A tyre grips hardest not when it rolls cleanly but when it slips a little — around ten percent faster than the road. Beyond that, grip falls away and the wheel lights up. Traction control measures wheel speed hundreds of times a second and trims the engine the instant slip passes the peak, holding the tyre at its best point out of every corner, lap after lap, with no adrenaline involved.
· WHY IT MATTERS
Friction versus slip rises steeply, peaks near 10%, then slides downhill into wheelspin. A driver feels for that summit through the seat; the computer simply measures it. The demo draws the curve and lets you ride it.
· WHY IT MATTERS
The system works by brief ignition cuts — the engine stutters audibly out of slow corners. Less power, more acceleration: the misfire you could hear was the sound of the optimal slip ratio.
· WHY IT MATTERS
With the computer perfect at corner exits, a chunk of driver skill was priced out of the results. Traction control was banned for 1994, crept back with software complexity in 2001, and was finally killed by a spec ECU in 2008.
· TRY IT
Apply throttle and watch where the tyre lands on the grip-versus-slip curve. Then switch the system on and see it pin the tyre at the summit — the two-second corner-exit advantage, explained by one curve.
Rubber grips best while slipping slightly — the curve’s summit. The controller’s whole job is to keep the marker on top of the hill, out of every corner, every lap, in the rain, with no adrenaline. That consistency is why it was banned as a driver aid.