I don't see what the controversy is all about. Without tractional control in wet conditions, drivers may have to drive more within the existing limits of the car's mechanical grip. Why is having to slow down to cope with conditions inherently unsafe? The same technical limitation applies to all the cars and drivers in the field so presumably no team should have any advantage unless it is achieved engineering.

I think the better argument--which I don't necessarily subscribe to--is that eliminating traction control dumbs down the cars. For a long time, the perception, whether true or not, has been the F1 lies at the pinnacle of motorsports: the best drivers, the best designers, the best technology, the best cars. One could argue that the designers should have a free hand in the development of their cars; this is the laissez faire approach to technological innovation in F1 cars.

 

haha thats true too. i also thought that f1 cars did not have ABS

 

because they're not going to slow down.

 

Yes, and I'll expand on that some.

The race drivers will push the car to the absolute limit, no matter what the conditions are. Even drivers with skills like MS, FA, KR, and others, go over those limits at times - even with driver aids. And wrecks happen. But in the dry, with those driver aids, there's greater chance that the car will be recoverable without major incident. But in the wet, without aids - the drivers will still push things to the limit, and the consequences could be much more severe than otherwise.

Remember the 2006 USGP? There was a proposal to have the drivers on Michelin tires just go slower on the front straight. That proposal was rejected because everybody realized that there was no way the drivers would do that, regardless of the risk - they're there to race.

 

it was the 2005 usgp.

 

No they don't have ABS, that's why you see tire lockup, and I mentioned ABS in the context of technology compensating for driver's skill in a driving school environment, hadnothing to do with F1......

 

Believe me, I totally get it... But they are the best of the best, and great drivers used to drive without all the techno stuff in the past. I still love seeing a lap around Monica in a Senna driven Honda, as he is manually shifting through the gears using a shift lever like in a normal car, not the high tech semi automatic paddle shifters of today.

 

i think they should have waited til they go back to slicks before losing traction control

 

I also think this traction control issue may make or break Sebastien Bourdais' F1 career

 

I agree. He probably has the most experience without traction control of any of the drivers out there.

I don't think his car will be competitive either way though. I can see him breaking into the points but probably not much better.