There are few sports out there that are as driven by technological advancement as racing. Chances are, some of the features on your own car stem from racing tech. Regenerative braking, found on Hybrids and electric cars, was first developed in Formula One. Many aerodynamic features such as spoilers, ground effects, air scoops, and many more have been perfected in motorsport. Many people will argue that driving cars in circles at high speed is wasteful, and they may be right. However, even if racing becomes all-electric, it is still necessary to drive automotive innovation.

This week, to celebrate the upcoming return of Formula One, all of our articles will be motorsport related. To kick off the festivities, we’re going to be looking at the six greatest technological innovations in racing.

6) Kinetic Energy Recovery System – KERS

Although KERS existed in various applications since the early 2000s, Motorsport did not adopt it until Formula One in 2009. The first use of KERS in Formula one allowed for an 80bhp electric boost that could be recharged under braking. Even with the extra power, few teams adopted KERS in 2009. During the Belgian Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen proved its effectiveness when he overtook the quicker Giancarlo Fisichella in the beginning of the race thanks to a KERS boost, and won the race. Ever since, the rechargeable electric boost system has been widely used in F1 and a few endurance racing divisions. Nowadays, KERS has been combined with the MGU-K and MGU-H devices, which draw power from the spinning of turbochargers or the heat lost from the engine.

5) Williams FW14 – Active Suspension

This car set the stage for possibly the most common racing-to-road technology available today. It’s something you hear car manufacturers brag about all the time; suspension that adjusts to fit your needs, but there’s a long story behind that button on your dash that allows you to select between different driving modes and conditions. In 1989 and 1990, Williams wasn’t doing as well in Formula One as they wanted. Their chief designer Adrian Newey, a man famous for designing competitive cars on a budget at March, created a machine that was by far the most technologically advanced on the grid. Named the FW14, the space-age (for that time period anyway) car featured active suspension, traction control, a semi-automatic gearbox, and anti-lock brakes for a short time. Any of those things sound familiar?

The car’s debut in 1991 saw 7 victories between Nigel Mansel and Riccardo Patrese, although Ayrton Senna won the driver’s championship that year. In 1992, Williams made some significant advancements in the car’s reliability. It was so dominant, Nigel Mansel set a record of 9 wins in a single season, easily winning the drivers’ and constructors’ championships. Advanced technology made the car so dominant that most of those technologies are still banned today.

4) McLaren F-Duct

One of the weirder-looking aero developments in Formula One, the F-duct was the predecessor to DRS, an adjustable flap on the rear wing that could be deployed to reduce drag in the straights. the F-Duct featured an asymmetrical scoop on the front of the car that would direct airflow through the cockpit (via flexible air duct) towards the rear wing. The added airflow served to stall the rear flap. While downforce is great in the corners, the trade-off is increased drag at high speeds, especially on the straights. Drag essentially pulls the car backwards while it’s trying to go forward, which reduces straight-line speed. To get around this, McLaren designed the F-Duct in a way that, when triggered, would direct air blow the wing to cancel out downforce and therefore reducing drag. The F-Duct’s flexible tubing allowed the driver to close it off on one side and activating the drag-cancelling effect. It was so effective that drivers observed the McLarens “taking off” in the middle of the straight. The F-Duct was banned one year later and replaced by the modern DRS (Drag Reduction System).

3) Gurney Flap

Named after the legendary racing-driver-turned-team-boss Dan Gurney, the Gurney Flap is hardly a technological innovation. Of all the innovations in our list, it’s by far the simplest. It is quite literally a piece of rigid metal bolted at a 90-degree angle on the end of a rear wing. The invention of the gurney flap came about thanks to a challenge. During USAC testing in 1971 at Phoenix, AAR’s (Dan Gurney’s team) car was visibly slower than every other car. Phoenix International Raceway, an oval track, barely emphasized handling development. That left only raw power and aerodynamics on the table for improvement. When Gurney was challenged by his driver to come up with something on the spot, Gurney remembered that similar application were used to direct airflow in airplanes. The thin metal strip proved so effective that Gurney’s driver, Bobby Unser, stated the car was making so much downforce in the rear, the car was now understeering.

2) Brabham BT46 B-Variant “The Fan Car”

The Brabham BT46, one of the more radically designed cars in F1 history, was designed by Gordon Murray in response to the immense success of the Lotus 78 (below). Its predecessor, the BT45, was too heavy to b effective. The BT46B featured some outrageous design elements, particularly the large fan on the rear. Although the “fan car” didn’t see too many races due to reliability issues, it proved the importance that aerodynamics had in racing. There were also questions about the legality of the fan element. To get around this, Brabham told the FIA that the fan was for cooling purposes. There was also political controversy thanks to then team owner Bernie Eccelstone’s position as president of the Formula One Constructors Association. Combined with the amount of debris that the fans would spit out at the drivers behind, the BT46 and any other “fan car” was banned from F1.

1)  Lotus 78 – Ground Effects

Possibly one of the most notorious technological advancements in racing, this happy accident was quickly banned from Formula One, but became a staple focus for future car development, both on and off road. The Lotus 78’s ground effects were never truly intended. The story of the Lotus 78 is one of sheer dumb luck. During wind tunnel testing, cardboard boxes were placed beneath the model car to prop it up. When the tests were run, the engineers noticed there was a significantly lower pressure zone beneath the car. Low pressure beneath a car helps pull the car closer to the ground, which improves handling. By adding skirts to the sides of the car, Lotus achieved incredible performance both on the straights and in the corners. The only drawback was that the ground effects needed to be close to the ground for the downforce to work, which means during the bumpy sections, there was almost no effect at all. Either way, Lotus seemed unbeatable and other teams were in a race of their own; to figure out what Lotus did. In the following years, ground effects became so pervasive and effective that cornering speeds became too high and were deemed dangerous. The FIA ruled that flat undersides were mandatory in 1983.

What do you all think? Did we miss anything? Are there any technological innovations that you think should be on our list?