Bending the rules!

[nokivasara]

The "cold war" of F1 is pretty interesting, with the Merc/RedBull front suspension trickery being the latest known thing.

What do we know about cars in the past, what did the teams try with (mass damper etc) and what did the get away with, that has been found out later?

The McLaren/Mercedes twin brake pedal comes to mind, pretty agricultural stuff

What else?

[Manoah2u]

f-duct.
double/triple diffuser.
fric suspension indeed.
traction control [Benetton]
'aerodynamic' wheelnuts
flexiwings
flexifloors
'aerodynamic' rear crash structure [ ala double diffuser - like effects ]

wasn't there talk once about a team running a 'secret' fuel supply [tank]?

[Just_a_fan]

Honda / BAR had the secret fuel tank.

[dobbster71]

I nominate:

Lotus 88 - Twin Chassis

Tyrrell 012 - Water Injection

[thisisatest]

Still used: "brake ducts" that happen to directly add downforce

[hpras]

Renault Launch Control

[Shooty81]

Using aerodynamic downforce to gain cornerspeed.

Think about it.

[bauc]

Movable Floor

http://www.formula1-dictionary.net/movable_floor.html

[WaikeCU]

- Different engine mappings for off throttle to benefit the exhaust blown diffuser
- Different Pirelli tire pressures

[Sawtooth-spike]

Surely the Fan Car wins this hands down.

51% of the purpose of the Fan was cooling. It just so happened the 49% of it function was to glue the car to the ground.

Or the 6 wheeler.

[nokivasara]

Surely the Fan Car wins this hands down.

51% of the purpose of the Fan was cooling. It just so happened the 49% of it function was to glue the car to the ground.

Or the 6 wheeler.

It's a shame we won't ever see things like this, the way the rules are written nowadays.

A more modern bending of the rules was the Ferrari fuel accumulator in 2015. Mercedes somehow knew what was going on and triggered an investigation, cheeky bastards

[nokivasara]

I nominate:

Lotus 88 - Twin Chassis

Tyrrell 012 - Water Injection

I didn't know about the Tyrrell, found some info about it that says that they were disqualified for the use of illegal fuel!

"FISA maintained that the water samples showed infinitesimal traces of hydrocarbons, and that could mean that the water tank illegally contained fuel.
According to the 1984 F1 annual Autocourse, FISA charged Tyrrell with: refueling during the race; using fuel that did not comply with the regulations; using illegal fuel lines; and using unsecured ballast.
Most F1 insiders believe that the impurities in the water came from contamination that probably came from the cans the water was carried in. The water had come straight out of a tap in Detroit."

[Olivier]

Benetton's 1994 re-fueling system. Twice as faster than the other teams' (twice as dangerous as well)

[dobbster71]

I believe that the Tyrrell team mixed the water with lead shot!

Certainly in the 1980's, when I started getting interested in F1 & was the eager recipient of my neighbours used copies of Autosport, there was much scope for rule bending, or wild rule interpretations. Nowadays, with the rules much more restrictive, the rule bending has to be more clandestine - which is a shame.

Another car that bent the rules was the Ferrari 126C2 at Longbeach 1982: http://strykerracing.weebly.com/uploads ... 8_orig.jpg

[Facts Only]

Wasn't the whole Tyrrell 012 debacle a smokescreen so they could punish Tyrrell for not towing the line on Turbo engines.

If we are talking of clever interpretation of the rules then the current Mercedes Split Turbo design is a good example, the compressor actually sits in the FIA space envelop section that was meant for the oil tank and not other engine/turbo components (but was never specifically detailed as such), that's why their oil tank is such a convoluted shape to fit around the compressor.