Banned: Four-wheel-steering

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Of all the exotic technologies to be banned from Formula 1 through the years, four wheel steering could perhaps be the only innovation to have been developed after it was outlawed.

The FIA made clear early in 1993 that ‘driver aids’ would be banned for 1994. A range of technologies were included in that all-encompassing phrase including one not yet in use – four-wheel steering.

Although front-and-rear-wheel steering appeared on road cars such as the Honda Legend and Mitsubishi 3000 GTO, it would never be raced in Formula 1. But late in 1993, despite knowing it would be illegal in a matter of weeks, Benetton gave the system a go anyway – and came damn close to racing it.

Following his second grand prix win in Estoril, Portugal in 1993, Michael Schumacher stayed on at the circuit with the Benetton team to test a new ‘C’ version of the Cosworth-powered B193.

The major addition to this car was a hydraulically operated rear steering rack, which Moog electro-valves able to alter the steering angle of the rear wheels by two degree in either direction.

In an attempt to minimise any safety implications the hydraulics were designed to go into a preset ‘fail safe’ position in the event of failure, pointing the wheels straight.

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The system was also designed to be turned off and on at will, allowing the driver to run the car with a conventional front wheel steer set up if he preferred.

Patrese disliked the sensation of four-wheel-steering
And in the event that was exactly what drivers Schumacher and Riccardo Patrese did prefer, finding the four wheel steer set up added nothing to the car in terms of lap time. But it did, as far as Patrese was concerned, produce an unusual handling sensation.

The lap times testified that if the system added any to the car’s performance, it wasn’t very much. Schumacher said:

It feels very good, but actually it doesn’t change things a lot. I am using the same lines and there isn’t a lot of movement at the rear. It makes it a little easier, but right now the system doesn’t work very well in the slow corners, so we might not use it in Adelaide.

They didn’t use it in Adelaide or Suzuka. Schumacher ran it in testing on Friday morning at Suzuka, and then turned the system off.

But Benetton’s failure to find any advantage with the system didn’t change the FIA’s decision to ban it.

Perhaps, though, this is one instance where the intervention of the rule book didn’t play the ultimate role in stopping a piece of technology being used. Maybe it just wasn’t a big enough step forward?

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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4 comments on “Banned: Four-wheel-steering”

  1. Judging by the fact that rear wheel steering has not spread like wildfire through the production car world, I’d guess that it has less of a beneficial effect than sometimes claimed. Perhaps it should be classed as an interesting gimmick, an extra selling point for Japanese sports cars, rather than a genuine technical advance.

  2. Was Schumacher quoted in Autosport regarding the system’s ineffectiveness in slow corners?

    Regards.

  3. Did the rear wheels move in the same direction as the fronts (same phase) or opposite direction (counter-phase)?

  4. Are you sure they didn’t? I’ve got the 1993 Japanese GP on tape and the commentators say that it WAS being used, at least for that race.

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