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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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#Formula1 #BrakeSteer #McLaren