Traction Control Banned

[GhoGho]

The FIA has banned the use of traction control in Formula One from 2008 onwards. The change in regulation has been backed by all the teams and by the FIA, who has already taken action to cut the use of advanced technology in the sport in a bid to improve the racing.

The governing body's council met earlier this week and approved of the ban to traction control, which had originally been permitted in 2001.

The new rules state: "No car may be equipped with a system or device which is capable of preventing the driven wheels from spinning under power or of compensating for excessive throttle demand by the driver.

"Any device or system which notifies the driver of the onset of wheel spin is not permitted."

About time

[Julian Mayo]

foundit

[mlittle]

The FIA has banned the use of traction control in Formula One from 2008 onwards. The change in regulation has been backed by all the teams and by the FIA, who has already taken action to cut the use of advanced technology in the sport in a bid to improve the racing.

The governing body's council met earlier this week and approved of the ban to traction control, which had originally been permitted in 2001.

The new rules state: "No car may be equipped with a system or device which is capable of preventing the driven wheels from spinning under power or of compensating for excessive throttle demand by the driver.

"Any device or system which notifies the driver of the onset of wheel spin is not permitted."

About time

My thoughts exactly.

[Southernman]

I agree as well. Now what drivers are going to struggle the most.

[gkaytaz]

Yeah. We will see who has more control over the car and better nerves.

[RE30B#16]

This won't affect the top drivers much, but it may help a few struggling with the gadgets like perhaps Jenson Button.

I heard Alex Zanardi say that his Williams was "no fun to drive because of all the driver aids." Jacques Villeneuve once said "driving a modern F1 car is like driving a race car and playing a video game at the same time."

I welcome this decision. I believe traction control was reintroduced as a cost cutting device to save money on blown engines.

[gkaytaz]

The real fun will begin when we have a bit of rainfall and no traction control

[Ed]

This change was always going to happen once a standard ECU was introduced. The reason traction control was allowed back in the first place was due to the difficulty in policing the ban as some of the teams came up with complex software systems which created a form of traction control but wasn't detected by the FIA. Now with a standard ECU that cannot be tampered with, traction control can be banned without having to worry about tricky software.

That is assuming of course that the standard ECU cannot be manipulated. Remember the ECU's are supplied by no other than Microsoft MES

This is in an earlier thread at viewtopic.php?t=968

The MES expertise site is at http://www.mesexpertise.com/home.asp

[Julian Mayo]

This won't affect the top drivers much, but it may help a few struggling with the gadgets like perhaps Jenson Button.

I heard Alex Zanardi say that his Williams was "no fun to drive because of all the driver aids." Jacques Villeneuve once said "driving a modern F1 car is like driving a race car and playing a video game at the same time."

I welcome this decision. I believe traction control was reintroduced as a cost cutting device to save money on blown engines.

Nup

[gkaytaz]

That is assuming of course that the standard ECU cannot be manipulated. Remember the ECU's are supplied by no other than Microsoft MES

Anything related to Microsoft is prone to suspicion

[mlittle]

This change was always going to happen once a standard ECU was introduced. The reason traction control was allowed back in the first place was due to the difficulty in policing the ban as some of the teams came up with complex software systems which created a form of traction control but wasn't detected by the FIA. Now with a standard ECU that cannot be tampered with, traction control can be banned without having to worry about tricky software.

That is assuming of course that the standard ECU cannot be manipulated. Remember the ECU's are supplied by no other than Microsoft MES

This is in an earlier thread at viewtopic.php?t=968

The MES expertise site is at http://www.mesexpertise.com/home.asp

ChampCar had the same problem for years prior to 2002 & 2003; although technically it was illegal they never, to my knowledge, penalized anybody because it was so hard to detect since the ECUs' were engine-specific(it was the engine companies[Ford-Cosworth, Toyota, Honda, Chevrolet, etc. who supplied teams with engines/ECUs']; assumptions were that the front-running teams like Newman-Haas, Penske, Ganassi, etc. had traction control but no one really ever knew...... ). Finally, in 2002, CART broke down and allowed traction control; in 2003, when Honda and Toyota bolted for the IRL, the series gave Cosworth the engine contract(all cars are Cosworth-powered); part of the agreement required that traction control be banned through the use of series-supplied ECUs'.

[gkaytaz]

ChampCar had the same problem for years prior to 2002 & 2003; although technically it was illegal they never, to my knowledge, penalized anybody because it was so hard to detect since the ECUs' were engine-specific(it was the engine companies[Ford-Cosworth, Toyota, Honda, Chevrolet, etc. who supplied teams with engines/ECUs']; assumptions were that the front-running teams like Newman-Haas, Penske, Ganassi, etc. had traction control but no one really ever knew...... ). Finally, in 2002, CART broke down and allowed traction control; in 2003, when Honda and Toyota bolted for the IRL, the series gave Cosworth the engine contract(all cars are Cosworth-powered); part of the agreement required that traction control be banned through the use of series-supplied ECUs'.

Given F1's wide engine spectrum a single ECU supplier is a remote possibility. Most teams will argue that they will need engine-specific ECUs, and rightfully so.