f1 paddle shifter?

hi, does anybody know what an f1 paddle shifter is? i was looking at this car (link is below) and it mentioned this feature that i'd never heard of. thanks in advance!

Help (http://www.autoextra.com/vehicledetail/adid-31353853/2002/maserati/spyder/san-diego/ca?CMP=OTC-Fms&a=15)

they are little padals that are located on the steering wheel. you can shift up and down gears in them like you were driving a formula 1 car.

F1 shifters are a piece of newer technology that higher end companies have started to offer on their cars. On some cars (eg. Lexus IS350) the shifters work just like a tiptronic/automatic transmission works. It is still an automatic transmission, they are just trying to make it look nicer and make it sportier. On other cars (eg. BMW M3, Ferrari F430) the shifters are connected to a sequential transmission which is sort of an electronically controlled manual transmission (trust me, its very different from an automatic). I could go into a more technical explaination if you would like.

The simple answer is that there are little controls connected to the steering wheel that let you control gear shifts without moving your hands from the wheel.