![]() The project stayed in the closet until 1986, where a F186 was prepared to test again the solution in preparation of the change of rules that would ban the turbo in 1988 in favour to the normally aspirated engines. But, if you take away the pleasure of changing gears manually engaging the clutch, you kill me."Įnzo agreed, maybe knowing to be too forward in time, and told Forghieri to put the project "in the closet" and preserve the research, sure that wouldn't be too long before it came to reality. Probably it could hold even a full Grand Prix. " I'm sorry, the project is good, really good. There was also the fear that everything could break down after a couple of laps, the project wasn't still ready to be operational at full force.Īpparently, the solution held and the lap times Villeneuve did were pretty good.īut Gilles wasn't again really fond of the solution and legends say that his words when reporting to Enzo Ferrari and Forghieri about the project where: The new solution was installed on the 1980 racing car, the T5, and put out on the Fiorano track on a day in March: Villeneuve and the "naked" T5 drove around without the fairings that weren't mounted since there was the fear they could bother the cables of the semi-automatic transmission that passed above the chassis. The project was put on hold, while tests continued, until 1980, where Villeneuve was asked again to test the new solution that featured six gears instead of the five used until then and had buttons to change gears instead of the steel balancers. ![]() Villeneuve wasn't really fond of the new system and asked to continue with the manual gear-stick method. Villeneuve testing the semi-automatic transmission at Fiorano in March 1980 Testing continued with test drivers and briefly with Jody Scheckter before it was decided to propose and let test the project to Gilles Villeneuve. It was eventually slimmed down to a couple of kilograms more than a normal gearbox, but the theoretical advantage and potential was great: weight distribution could be optimized, the gear-shifts were faster and didn't require the driver to take off the hands off the steering wheel or shift into neutral gear. It wasn't all roses though, initially the prototype was said to weight 20-30 kilograms more than the normal car, and Forghieri said that the valves for that prototype gearbox were straight out of machine tools, since there wasn't a dedicated budget for that project. ![]() The solution featured two steel balancers on the steering wheel, that were the pioneers of nowadays paddle-shifters, in place of the gear-shift cloche. The first prototype was finished and mounted on an old 312 T3 model, that was renamed as 312 EVO, and the first shakedown took place on a snowy day in Fiorano, in January 1979, the car was driven by test driver Giorgio Enrico under the close eyes of Enzo Ferrari that affirmed he had a similar idea during the war when his company's production was transformed from cars to machine tools because of the conflict. It's 1978 and after designing the transversal gearbox and the flat V12, implemented on the cars (that were his designs) that would bring Ferrari the drivers titles in '75,'77 and '79 and the constructors titles in '75, '76, '77 and '79, Mauro Forghieri came up with the idea of automating the transmission in a way that the driver would not require the use of a clutch pedal or take the hands off the steering wheel, shortening the overall time of shifting and making the driver more comfortable and less error-prone. This isn't quite right, since the project of a semi-automatic transmission is years older than that, to be exact, 10 to 11 years older than that. It's widely known that Ferrari first implemented this solution in 1989, on John Barnard's F189.Īllegedly, Barnard came up with the solution in 1986 while working at McLaren and brought it with him when he transferred to Ferrari. Today we explore the origins of the nowadays standard that is the semi-automatic clutch in racing. The history of the semi-automatic transmissionĮver wondered when drivers started changing gears through paddles on the steering wheel? Monza, home of Ferrari, Tifosi, that giant Ferrari flag and shock wins Looking for the Daily Discussion thread ? Menu Please read the full subreddit rules before submitting your comment or post. □□ Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing-RBPT, 1:07.275 Wikipedia? □□ Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing-RBPT, 1:04.984 Podium ![]() For accurate info on session times, please visit F1.com or visit a website like or ġ:05.619 (□□ C. Unfortunately, this means the sidebar won't be updated the way it used to be.
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