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This F1 car has two brake pedals – and one of them didn’t just slow the car down…
As always in F1, there is a VERY thin line between cheating and innovation. And one of my favourite examples is McLaren’s genius ‘Brake-Steer’ system.
The system was so clever it was banned.
This is the fascinating story of how McLaren outwitted the F1 world with £50 worth of tech , how Hakkinen and Coulthard had to change their driving entirely, and how this technology was so ingenious – it was banned.
In 1996, McLaren chief designer Steve Nicols was trying to figure out how to make his McLaren quicker.
The tyres at the time were a bit bizarre. Compared to today’s cars (where the rear tyres are MUCH wider than the fronts) – the tyres in the late 90s were pretty skinny at the rear and relatively chunky at the front.
This meant that the cars were very rear-limited – meaning you struggled more with corner exit than entry.
So the McLaren at the time was set up with a decent amount of understeer, and this was to protect those rear tyres on the exit from the corner. As an understeery setup typically helps with traction on exit.
But – understeer is never good. As you may need to over-slow the car to be hitting the correct racing line.
So – they wanted to protect those rear tyres, but they didn’t want the understeer.
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Sounds to me like the judges were not impartial. Imagine that. I know nothing about F1 that I didn't learn from this channel but I swear this isn't the first time I've heard of Ferrari benefitting from an adjudication.
Love you! Am i too old to try racing (1989) ,,, I would love to step foot in a racetrack
I wonder why they did it this way instead of making a split pedal where each side of the pedal controlled the corresponding rear brake, but that you could also press both of at the same time for uniform braking.
This why I watch it, but I hate F1 for banning genius innovations!
damnit Darren Heath
I had a fergi tractor do the same thing,
Most road cars use this inside rear wheel braking.
Modern cars use one brake at a time in electronic Stability control systems as of 2008 on all street cars.
they could have linked it to the steering wheel, turning left or right would suppress left or right break more
I do not think that is cheating. That is what makes Formula 1 special. 💐
Genious and simple, kind of driver controlled esp system.. As soon as the last golden age driver retires f1, there will not be anything more left to see in f1.. 🤡
Clever engineering but horrible naming 😂😅
It would have been legal if Red Bull was doing it. They might even be doing it now
That was really cleaver engineering. Uneven breaking was not illegal. It does cause a change on the motion direction, but does it without steering the wheels, so it's not steering. The way other teams got it banned was the real cheating part.
Hemi Under Glass had a similar concept. Had to have a way to steer while it was going along on two wheels. That system was hand operated I think
I know 99% bicycles have this system… why not for a F1 car?
It's just mechanical torque vectoring
It's because the best drivers use heel and toe on BOTH FEET. That's 4 pedals. DUH!!!!!
It wasn’t cheating, getting around the rules is the biggest part in the sport… innovation is key and it’s only cheating when there is no loophole to declare it so
Cheating. without it they would get destroy by Schumacher fact
nowadays that is called brake vectoring but,
it really is independent brakes, like in a bike.
it was cheating by clever engineering 😂
Does anybody realize they stole and updated the braking system off of farm tractors that have been using independent brake steer for DECADES. Genius, not.
Why ban good and effective innovations ? Like the DAS system from mercedes. Why not making it available for everyone ? Banning this things is just cutting progress and innovation curve
You are very into this, but go over your film again.
Clearly it wasn't four wheel steering.
If anyone was cheating it was the FIA.
Funny how something that is so common on tractors could be so advantageous in F1! 😊
every airplane i,ve ever flown has differential brakes for the main landing gear
Very clever and it’s never cheating A;unless you get caught B; it’s in black & white and not grey!
Think about how crazy is was for Senna to be blipping the gas to keep the turbos spooled.
Pues vale… le pillé todo… uno menos al que seguir
Happy for your winner of the Paul Ricard drive
Sounds like Ferrari couldn't make their own version so they paid for it to go away.
It's the original torque vectoring that's not true torque vectoring.
“This system was so clever, it was banned” – Formula One in a nutshell
F1 has seen some of the best innovations in history. My favourite is the Brabham Fan Car and the DAS. Total genius.
Its Not cheating, its competing. Genius engineering 👏
Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada
This was an interesting bit of design and engineering, but not cheating under the rules of the time. While it was truly amazing to see it used in F1, it was being used off road quite a bit before F1. My Dad and many of his friends build “sand rails” or “dune buggies” with steel tube hand-made frames powered by air cooled VW power trains. Most of these buggies had steering brakes, separate activators for the rear brakes. Our buggies used hand levers instead of an extra pedal or so, but they accomplished the same thing. They allowed the buggy to make tighter turns (sometimes we used them to steer when we could manage to get the front end in the air).