10 Biggest Formula One Controversies
5. The 'Fan' Car Which Sucked, Literally
In the 1970s, the competitive landscape was dominated by Lotus with their discovery of the 'Ground Effect' in aerodynamics. This greatly increased cornering speeds by forcing fast airflow under the car. Gordon Murray and Brabham then decided to try something different in their attempt to out-smart the competition.
One of the innovations discovered by Brabham was to create a suction effect on the car towards the track by putting a fan on the back. As outrageous as this is, their methods of hiding it were even more outrageous as they just covered it with a giant dustbin lid and claimed that the big fan was to help cooling (to sidestep the rule stating that a moving device whose main purpose was for aerodynamics was banned).
The Brabham BT46B raced at the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix, where its drivers John Watson and Niki Lauda qualified 2nd and 3rd behind Mario Andretti's Lotus. The Brabham drivers were driving slowly. As Niki Lauda puts it he was 'trying to avoid pole'. Lauda then went on to win the race by 34 seconds whilst Watson retired having spun off.
Whilst the Brabham BT46B was never actually banned, the team under orders from its owner Bernie Ecclestone withdrew the car after protests from rival teams. This royally pissed off designer Gordon Murray and the Brabham team reverted to its regular BT46 chassis at the next race.