10 Cars That Changed Formula One
The first champion
The Alfa Romeo 158 practically invented the Formula One racer, and remains one of the sport's most successful cars. First produced in 1938, the 1.5-liter, front-engined car weighed just over 600 kg but produced more than 300 bhp. It carried Italian Giuseppe Farina to the first F1 world drivers' championship in 1950 and a modified "159" model took the title in 1951, cutting the template for lightweight, narrow-bodied, agile F1 cars.
Rear-engined revolution
A tiny British garage took the championship in 1959 by making a simple design change which is still followed today. The Cooper T51 Climax moved the engine behind the driver, allowing it to have a smaller, more aerodynamic nose and lower center of gravity. Rear-engined Coopers carried Jack Brabham to the 1959 and 1960 drivers' titles. By 1961, all the cars on the grid were rear-engined.
A revolutionary chassis
Cars before 1962 had a rigid frame with bodywork attached, but the Lotus 25's "monocoque" construction meant that the external shell provided all the structural support. The resulting car had three times the structural stiffness of its predecessor, but weighed only half as much. Jim Clark claimed the drivers' title in a Lotus 25 in 1963, after narrowly missing out the previous year, and the monocoque has endured until today.
Growing wings
Lotus designer Colin Chapman led the way throughout the '60s: he introduced wings to improve the grip of the Lotus 49B, and was the first to include Ford's unrivaled Cosworth engine as an integral part of the chassis structure (instead of resting on it). As with the Lotus 25, poor reliability cost Lotus the title in 1967, but it claimed the drivers' crown again with Graham Hill the following year.
The wedge
Chapman once again pioneered a car with a raft of innovations, plus a drastic new shape. The Lotus 72's wedge profile and modern rear wing created incredible grip with less drag. This was made possible by moving the radiators -- previously mounted on the front -- to the sides, where they remain to this day. In an impressive six-year run, the car took two drivers' titles and three constructors' crowns.
Turbo time
Renault entered the sport in 1977, boasting the first F1 car to be powered by a turbocharged engine. The Renault RS01 produced over 500 bhp but driver Jean-Pierre Jabouille bemoaned the "turbo lag" -- a short delay, followed by the power arriving "all at once." Yet by 1979, Renault RS turbos were picking up podium places and in 1983 all the big teams turned to turbo -- with cars now generating over 700 bhp.
Ground-breaking ground effect
For Chapman's final design revolution, he sculpted the underside of the Lotus 78 to resemble an upturned airplane wing. This created an area of low pressure under the car and massive downforce at high speeds. Lotus won the constructors' title in 1978 with the 78 and upgraded Lotus 79. Ground-effect aerodynamics led to a dramatic rise in cornering speeds before safety rules were introduced in 1983 to curb their effectiveness.
Winning lying down
The McLaren MP4/4 was the first to put the driver in the now-standard reclining position -- and it was the combination of this low-lying aerodynamic profile, along with McLaren's pioneering carbon-fiber chassis, that laid the foundation for the car's success. In the last year that turbo was permitted in F1 (before its scheduled return in 2014) McLaren claimed 15 victories from 16 races, including 10 1-2 finishes.
Computer-controlled cars
Computer systems arrived in F1 with the primitive traction control of the 1980s. By 1992, they had become proficient enough to put the Williams FW14B clear of any competition. The combination of pre-programmed active suspension and traction control helped put Nigel Mansell seconds ahead in qualifying and he ran away with the 1992 title after winning the first five races -- while starting an ongoing debate about "driver aids."
Today's champion
The Renault RB9 carried Sebastian Vettel to a fourth successive title, rivaling the fastest cars in F1 history despite big cuts to engine power over the last decade. Among their refinements, the team's engineers manipulated exhaust gases to create more rear downforce, which Vettel used to great advantage. But they had to go back to the drawing board for 2014 due to major rule changes and a switch to V6 turbo engines.
Source: Cnn
