Cars
Mythbusters: A change of gear
Scuderia Ferrari’s late great technical director, Mauro Forghieri, had experimented with a semi-automatic transmission as far back as 1979. It used a high-pressure hydraulic system, and it was evaluated by none other than Gilles Villeneuve. Despite completing 100 laps around Fiorano, the French-Canadian star driver decided he preferred the purity of a regular manual transmission.
When Ferrari introduced an automated gearbox in 1989’s 640 F1 car, its technical bravery was rewarded with victory in its debut race, in the season-opening Brazilian Grand Prix. It wasn’t always plain sailing, but by the mid-Nineties every team on the grid had adopted a similar set-up. This was one of the great game-changers in the history of Formula One.
Ferrari soon began experimenting on a system similar in principle for use in road cars. An early iteration used an automatic clutch with electronic control of an electro-mechanical actuator. The system was fitted to the Mondial T, on the last 100 or so cars to roll off the production line in 1992.
Discover how Ferrari’s paddleshift gearbox went from promising failure to industry standard
The engineer Paolo Martinelli recognised its potential, and subsequently adapted a car so that there was actuation for the gearbox as well as the clutch. When Martinelli took charge of engine development at the Formula One team in 1994, his colleague Claudio Lombardi took over, expanding the team to include researchers in the Fiat Group and electronics partner, Magneti Marelli. Experts in software at the nearby University of Bologna were also drafted in.
The 355 F1 (1997) was the first road car to use the new system, introduced as part of a series of mid-life updates on this best-selling Ferrari. Given how exhilarating its existing six-speed manual gearbox was, the arrival of two paddles on the steering column and the disappearance of the traditional H-pattern open gate was viewed with suspicion by many, outright hostility by a few. It was ever thus: human beings are equal parts excited by yet wary of change, as the current debate about AI re-affirms.
Ferrari’s semi-auto transmission made the leap from Formula One to the road with the Mondial. The 355 F1 road car added paddleshift controls
Point of fact the gearbox itself was the same, the difference coming via an electrohydraulic system that actuated the shifts rather than the driver’s left foot doing so on the clutch pedal. The shape of the paddles was finalised after specific work by a team of ergonomicists at the University of Delft. The shift paddles were deliberately large in size without impeding the view of the instrument display, and fixed to the steering column so that the driver would be able to use them easily and safely regardless of the amount of lock being applied.
Within a handful of years, every high-performance car would switch to this semi-auto system. It allowed much faster gearshifts (150 m/s), increased driver involvement and focus, and could withstand higher torque loads. It really was an automated manual rather than an automatic, and the car responded best driven in the same manner you would drive a conventional gearbox.
Things have evolved considerably since then, advances in software and technology reducing shift times to a point that would have been barely believable 30 years ago. But Ferrari got there first.