I have done a quick search, but have yet to find much info on the driver controls of the transmissions in F1.
I know over the years the semi automatic transmission has evolved.... I think they started at Ferrari with paddle shifters and a foot pedal clutch for the initial engagement. I read that they then had some sort of mapping or learning capability that eliminated the manual shifting. Then the clutch control moved to a button on the steering wheel.
Of course launch control was invented, then banned.
Can someone give me a quick summary of this information, or point me to a resource that explains the current state of the art, if not the history?
An abstract, I hope it answers, at least partially, your questions.
In 1978 Mauro Forghieri designed a system that was mounted on an old Ferrari 312 F1. It was composed by hydraulic actuators (taken from a machine tool) moving the selecting forks in the gearbox. The shift was actuated by two buttons on the steering wheel, one for the upshift, the other one for the downshift. Gilles Villeneuve tested it on the Fiorano track making about 100 laps successfully. But at the end of the test he said that he wasn’t confident without a mechanical link, Enzo Ferrari accepted the judgement of the driver and the system wasn’t further developed.
About 10 years later John Barnard introduced on the Ferrari F1/89 (640) the semi-auto gearbox with paddle shifter behind the wheel controlling hydraulic actuators in the gearbox, pulling the right one you have an upshift, pulling the left one you have the downshift. It wasn’t really reliable, and IIRC it never completed a race simulation in testing, but with a bit of luck and a delayed pit stop (only for tyres at the time...) Mansell won the first race in Brazil 1989. I do remember that Mansell also had to change the steering wheel at the pitstop and the Italian tv commentator (former driver Andrea De Adamich) said : “That’s something we could see very often in the future”...
Then the other teams slowly adopted the same system in the following years, I think by 1995 it was adopted by everyone, most of them with an hydraulic system, someone (Tyrrell ??) used a pneumatic system.
McLaren in the 1992, with the Mp4/7 (the cyber-car) also thanks to the introduction of the fly-by-wire throttle was the first one able to use an almost entirely automatic control of the gearbox while the other teams were basically using just a few different programs for multiple downshifting.
About the clutch, at the start it was still activated with a pedal then it was moved (in 1994 by McLaren) to the steering wheel with an actuator, some drivers actually preferred to still have the pedal because it was more intuitive in case of a spin to avoid the engine stall but AFAIK it was anyway connected to an actuator, I think that the clutch was basically used only at the start.
In the following years, very little has changed in the interface driver/gearbox. The most particular case is probably Jacques Villeneuve who preferred to use a single paddle on the right, pushing it for upshift and pulling for downshift, the clutch was a paddle on the left.
The last thing worth noticing. In many designs (as in the original one on the 639) the paddle shifter is a single piece hinged at the centre. This allows the driver to operate an upshift also if the right hand isn’t on the wheel, just pushing the paddle with the left one, very useful this year since the driver must initiate also all the upshifts. Obviously the same isn’t possible if the paddles are two separate parts.
That’s off by heart, probably I made some mistakes so I appreciate any correction.
Edit : The 639 was the testing car that never raced, the 640 was the definitive car that raced in 1989 and the one which won the race with Mansell.
Thank you for that comprehensive reply. I guess I knew the very basic story, but you have an excellent grasp of all of the details.
You say that this year the upshifts must be initiated manually, I was confused because I see no movement of the drivers' hands during acceleration. What about downshifts, are they also manual? If not, how are they performed?
Since the start of this season each gear change must be manually initiated. I referred to the upshift because the automatic upshift was one of the first things to be implemented and all the drivers used it. On the contrary the totally automatic downshift wasn’t used by all the drivers, a few preferred to still have a manual control using just the multiple downshift programs in braking from very high speed to very low.
It’s true that the movement of the hands is quite limited but if you focus on the fingers you should be able to see it.
don´t forget these shifts are electrohydraulic and ECU controlled.
So if you pull or push the lever ,this is effectively a electrical switch so you may not actually move the lever very far.
As the engine/gearbox won´t allow a late upshift or an early downshift
the driver can pull the lever early I guess and wait for the controls to
effect the shift when all parameters fit.
I very well remember Mansell throwing out the steering wheel during his stop...and the baffled Ferrari crew when the thing lasted till the end.....who said Mansell had bad luck in his career?
That’s probably because in endurance the speed isn’t as important as in F1 so also if the maximum pressure is limited compared with the hydraulic system, it’s better to stick with the pneumatic one that is more reliable.
I didn’t know about the Zytek, do you have more info/a link about it ?
marcush. wrote:
I very well remember Mansell throwing out the steering wheel during his stop...and the baffled Ferrari crew when the thing lasted till the end.....who said Mansell had bad luck in his career?
I’ve somewhere an article by Cesare Fiorio about that race, according to him for the team members it was so certain that the car wouldn’t have lasted that some even suggested to put just a limited amount of fuel on it, to give a good impression in the first part of the race, waiting for the inevitable retirement. Fortunately they took a different decision...
In racecar engineering vol 14 no8 there´s a pic of the shift arrangement,and a brief description of the system.I have a random contact into Zytek and may get some hands on info as this guy drove the car in LM... and drove the same gearbox equipped with the megaline shift before.
Judging from the shiftspeed with the wheels up when warming up the thing in the pits the megaline is not slow,far from it.Not quite a machine gun but a far cry from those marelli 360 F1 cambio jokes...
Please educate me on "multiple downshift programs." Are these now banned by F1? How were they commanded by the driver?
And you say that the ECU limits the shift parameters such that the shift is performed only under the proper vehicle speed, engine speed, etc, such that the shift may not occur when the driver makes the command... can the driver blip the paddlee three times, in anticipation of a particular section of the track, and will the transmission then store the 3 upshift (or downshift) commands until the proper conditions allow the shifts? That would seem to violate the intent of the regulation.
I’ve just found an interesting article with a more precise story about the tests of the electrohydraulic gearbox in late ‘70s. Unfortunately it’s only in Italian so for the moment just look at the pics and the schematics, if you are interested I can translate text and captions.
About the multiple downshifts programs, in the first years the driver had a couple of button with the pre programmed actions. For example, if you are in 7th gear at the braking for a slow chicane just pushing the button and the gearbox automatically downshifts (passing thru all the gears) in the right gear (1st or 2nd or whatever). Different buttons for different sequences (or for a different number of sequential downshifts). Later the car learned in which point of the track it was and the gearbox already knew what do by itself depending by the corner.
On the other point, I don’t know honestly, because the rule AFAIK isn’t in the technical regulations, to require the driver to initiate each gear change is an enforcement of a rule in the sporting regulations. For the upshift, looking at the camera car, it seems to me that the drivers operate the paddle at the right time, for the downshift I have to check.
Thanks for the explanation of the mutiple downshift programs and the "learning" function of the transmission. I remember reading that the gearbox would have to be resequenced if, for instance, the car was spun and the acceleration from a stop would put the shift sequence out of synchronization with the track.
I need to watch the in camera shots more carefully (or get a big screen TV), so that will be my homework assignment!!!!
reca has to be right,as if iwhere correct the box would not allow shortshifting on the upshifts.
But on the downshifts I thimk the ecu will not allow a early downshift to save the engine ,one of the strong points for retaining automatic boxes (cost saving ,as you get less overrevs).
My source is not available in the next days ,so you have to be patient...
Hello everyone, I hope to join this board very soon. I have a question on how to aquire these said shifters. Where, who, and how much. Also, would they be possible for todays normal autos?
gear dawg wrote:Hello everyone, I hope to join this board very soon. I have a question on how to aquire these said shifters. Where, who, and how much. Also, would they be possible for todays normal autos?
Yeah, of course, you just have to go to your local BMW, Maserati or Ferrari dealer and buy an M3, a Ferrari 360 F1 or so.
Seriously, there are systems to convert the H gearing into sequential movements, I guess there also may be powered sistems controled by electrical impulses. Anyway, they aren't faster than conventional shifting, by design, and shouldn't provide any advantage, together with adding weight and potentialy causing problems...
