5 times F1 teams used clever tricks to outwit their rivals

For more than 75 years, F1 has had one endeavor: building the fastest race car possible on the planet. Like racing drivers, racing teams don't necessarily like to be told what to do, which is where the rules or the 'formula' of making the fastest cars on the planet comes into play.

Engineers that build these open-wheeled monsters are more often than not looking for that one loophole to exploit in the regulations. After all, it is this loophole that will allow the team to have an edge over its competitors. Over the years, there have been many ways a team has found extra performance on track and sometimes even off track.

From the Crashgate controversy involving a certain Flavio Briatore and the Renault F1 Team to the more recent Ferrari engine troubles in 2019, the sport has not failed to excite. Over the years, there have been several subtle yet effective measures the teams have taken to edge out their rivals, some of which we will explore in this article.

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5 clever tricks F1 teams used to have an edge over rivals

The best way to trick the regulations comes in the form of innovations and/or practices that baffle the rulemakers themselves as to whether they are legal or not. Here are five great examples of teams making the best use of the gray areas in the regulations:

#5 Automated Pit Stops

The 2021 season of the F1 World Championship saw a technical directive surface in the paddock regarding the ever-increasing speeds at which teams performed their pit stops. Sub-two second stops were not uncommon in the pit lane, with top teams such as Red Bull and Mercedes often falling below the elusive two-second mark.

It was later discovered by the FIA that every team used some type of automation, from the wheel gun tightening the wheel to the driver getting the green light, making the process faster than a human could react. The suggestion behind the directive was that the pre-emption level could lead to cars leaving their pit boxes with loose wheels or the mechanics being put in danger.

Now every team requires their tire changers to send a signal from their wheel gun manually, and only after all four signals from the corners of the car are received, can the green light be shown to the driver.

#4 Dual Axis Steering (DAS)

The 2020 F1 season saw dominant Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valterri Bottas pushing and pulling on the steering wheels of their W11 cars. This left the competition perplexed, and after further investigation by the demands of the other teams, Dual Axis Steering, or 'DAS', broke covers.

The system essentially involved pushing and pulling on the steering wheel in the cockpit of the car, which in turn changed the geometry of the front wheels, specifically the toe angle. The toe angle is the angle of attack of the horizontal leading edge of the tire.

Increasing the toe-in, which essentially turns the two front wheels towards each other, helped the W11 generate more heat in the tires for situations such as safety car restarts, whereas pulling the steering and increasing the toe-out helped the car turn-in into corners during race conditions. The system was banned from the 2021 F1 season onwards.

#3 F-Ducts

McLaren managed to revolutionize the 2010 F1 season when they showed up with distinctive ducts on the sidepods of their MP4-25 contender.

The theory behind the ingenious invention was related to the aerodynamics of the car. An F1 car's wings at the front and back create downforce, which is what helps it stick to the ground, enabling it to go faster around corners. However, creating downforce comes with the addition of drag as well. Aerodynamic drag is when the air that is helping the car stick to the ground is also slowing it down in the straights, thus resulting in a lower top speed.

McLaren's solution to having their cake and eating it too came in the way of an F-Duct, which channeled air through the cockpit to the rear wing of the car. Drivers could cover an opening in the cockpit, directing the air over the rear wing and stalling the downforce. This essentially meant they could have high downforce as well as low drag at any given moment on the track.

Many other teams also copied the idea and came up with their own versions before the phenomenon was banned by the FIA.

#2 Brake Steer

F1 photographer Darren Heath was the reason why everyone came to know about this innovative solution to a problem drivers have on track. Heath, saw the inside brake rotors of the McLaren driven by Mika Hakkinen in the 1997 season glow, which made him wonder why only one side was glowing, in the middle of the corner.

Heath went on to investigate and found an ingenious solution in the car's footwell where he photographed an extra brake pedal. The extra lever allowed the driver to operate the rear brakes on either side of the car in order to turn them into corners aggressively. The ultimate time gained by this rather simple solution was around half-a-second per lap, which is why it had to be banned by the F1 governing body.

#1 Using medical equipment to gain a pit stop advantage

McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley recently appeared on the Bring Back the V10s podcast where he reviewed the 2004 F1 Belgian Grand Prix with The Race. Back when refueling was allowed in the sport, the refueling man used to wear a doctor's stethoscope under his overalls. This helped him listen to a valve in the rig as it closed and the lights went green for the driver to go.

Hearing the valve close allowed the pit crew member with the rig to initiate the process of taking the rig out of the car before it was fully closed, saving the team a few tenths on every refuel. the best part about this ingenious solution to a problem that never existed was that it was completely in-line with the rules as the team was not modifying their equipment in any way!

F1 continues to remain a technical battle to find that extra tenth over the competition, whether it be on track, in the pits, or back at the team's factory, so we can be certain that many a new inventions are still to make their appearance on the grid.