6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport
Blog

6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport

The late Ayrton Senna rightly remarked then that "the runner-up is the first among the losers." True champions will do anything to be first, even if they try to bend the rules from time to time.

At the same time, the organizers of the competition are ready to tirelessly change the rules and introduce new ones - on the one hand, to make the start safer, and on the other, to prevent a too long and boring race. In this constant game of cat and mouse, they sometimes found truly ingenious solutions. Here are six of the greatest scammers in motorsport history, handpicked by R&T.

Toyota at the 1995 World Rally Championship

For three consecutive years, from 1992 to 1994, the Toyota Celica Turbo dominated the WRC, winning one title each with Carlos Sainz, Juha Cancunen and Didier Oriol. In 1995, the organizers intervened decisively and introduced mandatory "restrictor plates" to reduce the air flow to the turbocharger, according to the power, according to the speed and risk.

But Toyota Team Europe engineers are finding an ingenious way to circumvent the rule, bypassing the very restrictive bar. So inventive, in fact, that inspectors only caught them in the penultimate race of the 1995 season.

6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport

Toyota used exactly the plate required by the regulations, only installed it on very specific springs. They push it about 5mm further away from the turbocharger, which is allowed, and so it gets a little more air in front of it—enough, in fact, to raise the power by 50 horsepower. But the scam is that when the inspectors open the system to look inside, they activate the springs and the plate returns to its original position.

The head of the FIA ​​Max Moseley called it "the most sophisticated scam I have seen in motorsport in 30 years." But, despite the praise, the team was punished, it did not participate in the championship for a whole year.

6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport

Smokey Uniq at NASCAR, 1967-1968

We have already written about Henry "Smokey" Unique as one of the pioneers of adiabatic engines. But in NASCAR history, this cowboy-hat-and-pipe-wearing hero remains the greatest con man of all time—always ready to outsmart inspectors with a brilliant idea.

In the 1960s, Smokey competed in the humble Chevrolet Chevelle (pictured) against the mighty Ford and Chrysler factory teams.

6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport

In 1968, his car was upgraded to such an extent that inspectors found nine violations of the rules and banned him from Dayton until he corrected them. Then one of them decides to inspect the tank just in case and takes it from the car. An enraged Smokey tells them, "You just write ten of them," and in front of their surprised eyes, he gets into the car without a tank, lights it up, and sets off. Then it turns out that the self-taught genius also figured out how to get around the tank volume limit - he just saw that the regulations did not say anything about the gas pipeline, and made it 3,4 meters long and five centimeters wide to accommodate an additional 7 and 15 liters of gasoline .

6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport

Red Bull Racing in Formula 1, 2011-2014

Four Red Bull world titles between 2010 and 2013 were the result of Sebastian Vettel's skill and the ability of the team's engineers to invent new numbers in the gray area of ​​the rules. In 2011, when Vettel scored 11 victories and took 15 first positions out of 19 starts, the car was equipped with a flexible - and, according to many competitors, illegal - front wing.

6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport

Movable aerodynamic elements have been banned in F1 since 1969. But Red Bull's engineers made sure that their wing was tested in a static state, and that it only flexes under higher runway loads. The secret was in the carefully laid carbon composite. Thus, the team was audited in 2011 and 2012. But in 2013, the FIA ​​tightened checks, and the practice allegedly stopped. Whereas at the last start of 2014, Red Bull cars were again caught with flexible fenders, punished by starting from the last row.

6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport

Brabham and Gordon Murray in Formula 1, 1981

The line between fraud and innovation exists, but has always been blurred. But in 1981, Gordon Murray, future legendary creator of the McLaren F1, definitely realized that he was bypassing the rules with the Brabham BT49C. The car, designed by Murray, has a hydropneumatic suspension that allows it to release more pressure than it is allowed. When viewed before starting, the vehicle has a ground clearance of 6 cm, which is an acceptable minimum. But as soon as the car picks up speed, there is enough pressure on the front fender to pump some of the hydraulic fluid into the center tank, thereby lowering the BT49C below the limit.

6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport

Murray ingeniously tweaked the system so that after finishing on a slow cooling loop, the pressure drops and the car rises again. In addition, to distract attention from the suspension, he installed a suspicious box with protruding cables on the car. Nelson Piquet won his third start in Argentina in 1981 with this Brabham. Then the system was revealed, but the accumulated progress is enough for Piquet to win the title, with a single point ahead of Carlos Reuthemann.

6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport

McLaren in Formula 1, 1997-98

Ron Dennis' team was in the gray zone for two seasons due to the second brake pedal, which allowed pilots Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard to activate only one of the rear brakes when necessary. The original idea came from American engineer Steve Nichols and was aimed at reducing understeer. It was possible to identify only thanks to the vigilant photographer, who noticed the high-temperature brake disc coming out of the turn.

6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport

McLaren engineers later admitted that this innovation brought them an impressive half second. As usual, the loudest screams were raised by Ferrari, according to which the British team's innovation violated the four-wheel drive ban. The FIA ​​agreed and banned the second pedal at the start of the 1998 season, which did not stop Mika Hakkinen from winning eight races and winning the McLaren title.

6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport

Ford at the 2003 World Rally Championship

Air plus fuel equals power. Therefore, the governing bodies of all motorsport competitions try to restrict air access to the engines. We saw Toyota solve this problem in 1995. In 2003, Ford came up with another idea: their Focus RS used recirculated air. Engineers installed a secret air tank under the rear bumper. Made of 2mm thick titanium alloy, it collected compressed air from the turbocharger when the pilot pressed the gas.

6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport

Then, for example, on a long straight, the pilot could release the accumulated air, which returned to the intake manifold through a titanium tube. And since he was walking behind, this air practically passed the mandatory restrictive bar. This little trick increased the strength by 5% - enough for Marco Martin to win two draws this season before a place was announced and he was suspended in Australia.

6 of the most cunning scams in the history of motorsport

Add a comment