Most important technical development in F1?

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Without doubt here guys....Slick Radial Tyres.

Everything else is a consequence of making these black things go round faster.

[aral]

• Fully stressed rear engine by Cooper?
• radial tyres by Michelin
• turbo engines by Renault
• first electronic engine control unit and fuel injection

As far as I remember, the Cooper engine sat in a space frame and was not stressed. The first engine to be used as a stressed part of the car was the DFV, and it was in a Lotus

[Morteza]

Adrian Newey

Jokes apart, I'd say carbon fiber body and turbo engines as well.

[marcush.]

for sure the use of confor head cushion and the elevated substructures and stringend crashtesting regs in F1 have moved goleposts for safety in motorsports to a new level altogether since John Barnard came up with Carbonfibre.
Today it still is possible to get hurt in a modern time F1 car but what adifference to the situation in 1994 when drivers still died or suffered serious head injuries from sideimpacts.
in fact f1 is still ultra lightweight not carrying much extra weight for safety rules but still offer this level of protection.

Thats a field the Automotive industry has unbelievably completely ignored since those 15 years...and fill up the car with 10,15 20 airbacks ...which are of course carrying an expiry date..

[mariano.torre.gomez]

no doubt for me
surviving cell!!!!
no more divers deaths!!!!!

[747heavy]

adding to the post above.
FT3/5 safety tanks - reduced the risk of fire greatly in accidents

[siskue2005]

sequential gear shifts and paddle shifter(which have reached every road cars now)

[autogyro]

sequential gear shifts and paddle shifter(which have reached every road cars now)

Sequential F1 gearboxes are single clutch single layshaft.
Road car paddle shift boxes may or may not be sequential in operation and are mostly twin clutch and twin layshaft boxes.

[Tim.Wright]

The modern racing tyre
Engine in the back
Composite primary structure
KERS (haha just jokes)

Tim

[fausto cedros]

Well, so many...
disc brakes
Monocoque (lotus 25...)
rEAR ENGINE-stressed
Aerodynamics

[WhiteBlue]

• Fully stressed rear engine by Cooper?
• radial tyres by Michelin
• turbo engines by Renault
• first electronic engine control unit and fuel injection

As far as I remember, the Cooper engine sat in a space frame and was not stressed. The first engine to be used as a stressed part of the car was the DFV, and it was in a Lotus

Actually the Lotus 43 with the unpopular BRM H16 engine and the BRM P83 with the same engine both build in1966 were the first cars with fully stressed engine. The extremely successful Lotus 49 from 1967 was the first with a DFV V8 engine but it cannot take that honor. It proved to be a monumental design success and all F1 cars since that time - with very few exceptions - had a fully stressed engine.

Same is true for the radial tyres, the carbon fibre tub and the electronic engine control unit. They were so successful that every later design used them.

[gibells]

Carbon Fibre
Pursuit of Aerodynamic Balance
Brakes
Flappy paddles

[Carlo's]

There you have some innovative cars:
http://users.telenet.be/aerogi/Racing/Weird/Weird.htm

[autogyro]

Max Mosley and Bernie.

[gridwalker]

Pit stop traffic lights