Williams F1 began work on its semi-automatic gearbox several years before it raced for the first time in 1991. The team’s Director of Engineering, Patrick Head, talks us through its evolution.

“There are several advantages to the semi-automatic gearbox. First, the driver gets to keep both hands on the wheel, so it’s easier for him to get the maximum from the car – particularly through fast corners, when the steering gets very heavy. Second, you can change gear in 30-50 milliseconds as opposed to 200-250 milliseconds, so it’s significantly faster.

“We started work on such a gearbox in about 1986. James Robinson was very keen on the idea of servo valve-operated gear changes, so he started looking into it and drew out quite a few of the bits. But we never actually produced a ’box with a sequential barrel selector.

“When John Barnard’s 1989 Ferrari came out with a semi-auto ’box, our development drive in this direction increased. We had a great guy in our prototype department called Ian Anderson; he was our chief mechanic when we first started winning grands prix in ’79 and he had a very natural technical ability. He thought the semi-auto gearbox was the best thing since sliced bread and a week after we gave him the drawings he had a ’box all up and running. Without him, we’d have been a year later with it.

“We ran the system on-track for the first time in 1990, but we didn’t race it. It was then part of the FW14 in ’91 and I think the system cost us that year’s championship because we had appalling reliability in the first four races. The problems were very easily solved and from mid-season we were very fast and reliable. All of our cars since have had semi-automatic gearboxes.

“Some people tell me that F1 would be better if the drivers still used stick shifts, but that’s a bit like saying, “isn’t it a pity we don’t still walk around in clogs!” There was a discussion in ’93 about banning semi-auto ’boxes because people like Alain Prost viewed changing gear with a lever as part of a driver’s skill-set.
“But we decided to keep semi-auto ’boxes because 95 percent of engine failures in the old days were caused by a driver changing down too early and over-revving the engine. The moment you have gear-shifting under electronic control, over-revved engines are out the door and life is much cheaper!”