Classic F1 cars "LHD"
Discussion
Got back into do a bit of sim racing with the VR headset, and been smashing the old Lotus cars around, but I noticed that they are all effectively LHD cars with the gearchange to the right, does anyone know the reason for this? Just thinking more with the British drivers in British cars would make it seem a bit unnatural
I'd imagine it's because for most people the right is the dominant hand and so the most reactive to feedback or an issue. I've driven single seat race cars and the gear lever/throw is tiny, the difference between getting second or fourth is miniscule. Better to have a driver adapt to having the gear lever in their dominant hand, even if it's on the 'wrong' side.
I believe it’s because early rear-engined single seaters borrowed their transaxle gearboxes from normal road cars- but installed in the rear of the car with the engine in front they are effectively the wrong way around and upside down, and the gear selector ends up being on whichever side of the car that it happens to be in that orientation.
In the late 50s, Citroen Diane, Renault Dauphine and VW Beetle ‘boxes and I’m sure many others, were inserted into racing cars. Unsurprisingly it was the VW box which tended to win out in the battle of attrition. It became the basis for Hewland Engineering race transmissions which quickly became ubiquitous. The Beetle gearbox casting, the wrong way around and upside-down, has its selector rails on the right hand side. A Hewland modified Beetle gearbox was the one to have for small single seaters well into the 80s.
In the late 50s, Citroen Diane, Renault Dauphine and VW Beetle ‘boxes and I’m sure many others, were inserted into racing cars. Unsurprisingly it was the VW box which tended to win out in the battle of attrition. It became the basis for Hewland Engineering race transmissions which quickly became ubiquitous. The Beetle gearbox casting, the wrong way around and upside-down, has its selector rails on the right hand side. A Hewland modified Beetle gearbox was the one to have for small single seaters well into the 80s.
HustleRussell said:
I believe it’s because early rear-engined single seaters borrowed their transaxle gearboxes from normal road cars- but installed in the rear of the car with the engine in front they are effectively the wrong way around and upside down, and the gear selector ends up being on whichever side of the car that it happens to be in that orientation.
In the late 50s, Citroen Diane, Renault Dauphine and VW Beetle ‘boxes and I’m sure many others, were inserted into racing cars. Unsurprisingly it was the VW box which tended to win out in the battle of attrition. It became the basis for Hewland Engineering race transmissions which quickly became ubiquitous. The Beetle gearbox casting, the wrong way around and upside-down, has its selector rails on the right hand side. A Hewland modified Beetle gearbox was the one to have for small single seaters well into the 80s.
Thank you. I have often wondered about the origin of the ubiquitous Hewland box, and now I know. Excellent stuff. In the late 50s, Citroen Diane, Renault Dauphine and VW Beetle ‘boxes and I’m sure many others, were inserted into racing cars. Unsurprisingly it was the VW box which tended to win out in the battle of attrition. It became the basis for Hewland Engineering race transmissions which quickly became ubiquitous. The Beetle gearbox casting, the wrong way around and upside-down, has its selector rails on the right hand side. A Hewland modified Beetle gearbox was the one to have for small single seaters well into the 80s.
Is it right though?
I had a look this morning and it wasn’t until 1988 that Hewland made a new gearbox casing to replace the Beetle casing for racing applications up to 1,500cc plus Formula Ford. The new gearbox carried over a lot of the Hewland Engineering’s work from the Beetle gearbox so even though the casing was a blank sheet design the gear shift continues to be on the right hand side to this day.
This means that any driver who started single seater racing in Rear engine Formula Junior and Formula Ford (except early cars with with Renault gearboxes), Formula Vee, and Screamer era Formula 3 and Formula 2 cars would’ve likely started with a right hand gear shift. Formula Vee was massive all over the world. By the late 60s, new Formula 1 drivers would’ve almost invariably cut their teeth in either Formula Ford or Formula Vee.
Some race car manufacturers in the early days did go to the trouble of engineering remote gear shifts which relocated the lever to a more familiar position- but as race cars became increasingly bespoke, such conveniences looked like unnecessary weight and cockpit space.
While the world of racing was becoming international from the birth of Grand Prix, Britain was the epicentre for race car engineering in this period and distributors sprung up in Continental Europe and North America to sell British racing cars. There was obviously no pressure from drivers from or buyers in these markets to move the gear shift to the left!
So right-hand gear shift looks like an evolutionary wrinkle in UK racing cars which got baked in as international competition grew.
As thegreenhell said, racing cars before the rear engine revolution would have simply used an engine and gearbox from an existing front engine rear wheel drive road car in its original orientation. They had to have an asymmetric design with the driver sat one side of the transmission or the other, or most commonly the driver straddled the propshaft with the gear lever between their legs. This is why these cars tend to be so high-sided with the distinctive teardrop shape to the rear bodywork.
Citations needed on the below!
Most formula 1 cars even in the 1,500cc era surely didn’t have Beetle gearboxes(?) so did they have right hand gear shifts simply because of the above? That is what racing drivers from the UK and the rest of the world were now used to? Or were early F1 gearboxes borrowing Hewland developed internals from the Beetle casing? Or does the design of gearbox internals make left hand gear shift impractical?
I believe that left hand drive cars are popular in tin top racing even in the UK because of something to do with weight distribution and clockwise circuits? So maybe racing drivers were used to driving left hand drive even before they got into single seaters?
I had a look this morning and it wasn’t until 1988 that Hewland made a new gearbox casing to replace the Beetle casing for racing applications up to 1,500cc plus Formula Ford. The new gearbox carried over a lot of the Hewland Engineering’s work from the Beetle gearbox so even though the casing was a blank sheet design the gear shift continues to be on the right hand side to this day.
This means that any driver who started single seater racing in Rear engine Formula Junior and Formula Ford (except early cars with with Renault gearboxes), Formula Vee, and Screamer era Formula 3 and Formula 2 cars would’ve likely started with a right hand gear shift. Formula Vee was massive all over the world. By the late 60s, new Formula 1 drivers would’ve almost invariably cut their teeth in either Formula Ford or Formula Vee.
Some race car manufacturers in the early days did go to the trouble of engineering remote gear shifts which relocated the lever to a more familiar position- but as race cars became increasingly bespoke, such conveniences looked like unnecessary weight and cockpit space.
While the world of racing was becoming international from the birth of Grand Prix, Britain was the epicentre for race car engineering in this period and distributors sprung up in Continental Europe and North America to sell British racing cars. There was obviously no pressure from drivers from or buyers in these markets to move the gear shift to the left!
So right-hand gear shift looks like an evolutionary wrinkle in UK racing cars which got baked in as international competition grew.
As thegreenhell said, racing cars before the rear engine revolution would have simply used an engine and gearbox from an existing front engine rear wheel drive road car in its original orientation. They had to have an asymmetric design with the driver sat one side of the transmission or the other, or most commonly the driver straddled the propshaft with the gear lever between their legs. This is why these cars tend to be so high-sided with the distinctive teardrop shape to the rear bodywork.
Citations needed on the below!
Most formula 1 cars even in the 1,500cc era surely didn’t have Beetle gearboxes(?) so did they have right hand gear shifts simply because of the above? That is what racing drivers from the UK and the rest of the world were now used to? Or were early F1 gearboxes borrowing Hewland developed internals from the Beetle casing? Or does the design of gearbox internals make left hand gear shift impractical?
I believe that left hand drive cars are popular in tin top racing even in the UK because of something to do with weight distribution and clockwise circuits? So maybe racing drivers were used to driving left hand drive even before they got into single seaters?
HustleRussell said:
I believe that left hand drive cars are popular in tin top racing even in the UK because of something to do with weight distribution and clockwise circuits? So maybe racing drivers were used to driving left hand drive even before they got into single seaters?
Most sports racing and prototype racing cars were actually RHD for improved weight distribution and visibility on predominantly clockwise circuits. However, most of them still had a right hand gearshift, but this was largely due to it being simpler to engineer a remote shift on a mid-engined car where the linkage has to go around the engine to get to the gearbox. Or was it?There may be some convention of commonality in the layouts between single seaters and sports cars, both in terms of parts used and control layouts, but as the rear-engined revolution of both was pretty simultaneous it's hard to pin down what the actual driving factor was, or perhaps it was just coincidence that the few available gearboxes for this layout at the time lent themselves to the needs of this application, rather than being a considered judgement to put the lever on one side or the other.
As mentioned above, the VW-based Hewland transaxle put the shift on the right when flipped for mid-engined cars, as did the Citroen gearbox used in the early Coopers. Others who developed their own gearboxes put the shift on the same side as well, with only BRM putting it on the left for their mostly British drivers. But really, any driver with the coordination to drive a racing car at all should be able to adapt to the gear shift position very quickly.
Finale said:
It takes roughly 5 seconds to get used to driving a LHD car with RH gear change .
It's a non issue .
Some might forget and try and get in the car the wrong side but I believe that won't be an issue on a F1 car .
This - it's just not an issue at all. I've drag raced LHD and RHD cars and gear changes don't get much more critical than in a drag race.. I wouldn't say it ever made a difference to me though.It's a non issue .
Some might forget and try and get in the car the wrong side but I believe that won't be an issue on a F1 car .
As to why it's on the right almost by default, I imagine it is because the majority of racing drivers do come from LHD countries so it's just the natural side for it to be on.
I don't really buy the 'dominant hand' justification though.. I agree the right hand is typically the dominant hand, but I don't agree that it's better for the dominant hand to be on the gear shift lever as opposed to being the hand that remains on the steering wheel. I would say that when I'm pushing most of the accuracy I'm relying upon is focussed on the steering wheel, brakes and throttle, the gear changes are almost muscle memory and I barely think about it.
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