One of the most fascinating aspects of how motorsport develops is that it has three major requirements that all contradict each other.
It needs to be the advanced pinnacle of motoring technology, from high-tech motorsport gears to engine technology; it needs to also be accessible to ensure enough teams and drivers can race in a series and it needs to be entertaining enough for people to watch.
It also needs to be safe and fast, with all five of these points requiring a compromise for a series to work, which leads to a lot of banned technologies.
Some of these are relatively minor advantages such as the expanding Michelin tyres in the 2003 Formula One Season that were controversially banned mid-season. Others have changed the sport in much larger ways, leading to many questions about how motorsport would look if everything was permitted.
Here are some of the bigger cases.
The Driver Aids Ban
When people talk about the most advanced cars in motorsport history, many people look at the Williams-Renault FW14B and its championship-winning active suspension system.
However, by 1993, almost every car on the Formula One grid was similarly advanced, ultimately leading to a decision by the FIA to ban nearly every advanced piece of technology on the grid with the feeling that the mechanics were more in control of the car than the drivers were.
This included not only technological advances such as active suspension, launch control, traction control and anti-lock braking systems but also systems that were in early development and testing phases such as four-wheel steering and continuously variable transmissions (CVT, more common with electric cars).
This led to a very different 1994 season, with more erratic cars that led to a much greater number of accidents, crashes, incidents and tragedies.
The Fan Car And Ground Effect Skirts
Ground effect is not banned in modern Formula One, with the 2022 cards utilising the same solution for generating downforce through shaping the air underneath the car, and some of its problems too.
However, it will never be implemented in the same way that it was in the late 1970s and early 1980s with cars such as the Brabham BT46B, which used a fan on the back of the car for “cooling” but also to help suck the car to the ground.
That car was quickly banned, and after a series of horrible accidents and near-misses, the ground effect concept as a whole was. Had ground effect remained, Formula One history would have looked very different, much lower and with side skirts.