Pete -

the reason traction control is allowed is not because FIA love it - but because they can't detect if somebody has got it or not. You only see the effect - lower lap times! You can't ban something that you can't detect - it's almost the same as trying to ban "thoughts!".

For the ABS brake system, an FIA inspector would be able to spot it in less than 2 minutes - since you need some electro-mechanical system - you can't hide it, same for the steering systems.

Traction control works best of course if you have some additional hardware to check certain parameters like wheel speed - but basically they can run it in a stealthy way such that all the components that are normally needed for regular car/engine operation can be used for it's purpose. The key part is the engine management system - this can hide the traction control software - even if the FIA spent months studying the engine management software they would not find it. So the only way to ban traction control would be to ban the engine management software totally - i.e. no CPU's connected to the engine and therefore back to carbs.

You don't have to have the engine management connected to the rear wheels to be able to do traction control - you can do it remotely from the engine compartment. Just to give you an example - the engine management knows where the car is on the circuit at any point - like exit of a corner - so it could alter power settings even if the wheels are not spinning - you can also detect the rate of change of speed of the crankshaft i.e. is the engine acceleration higher than normal - so deduce that the wheels must be spinning - and reduce the power based on this closed loop of information. The methods are many and as soon as the FIA discover one and ban it - the teams will already have 3 back up methods in hand which they can instantly apply - so basically no point. It is an ethics thing - and probably Bernie (since he also was a team owner) knows that points come before ethics.

It causes huge embarrassment for Bernie and friends when the mud starts flying between Dennis and Todt - over who is using what. Notice the issue around the "flexible" parts of the 2002 Ferrari bodywork that was spotted by the high speed cameras when it ran over the kerbs at Imola. Since FIA can't control the disputes - in the end they decided it was better that they drop the whole thing and let the teams use it.

Why Honda did not fit it to the S2000, I don't know. However if Honda was entering the S2000 into races against BMW's fitted with traction control - then I bet they would also fit it.

 

If I understand this, does it mean that most of these rule changes are in place because the teams, essentially, cheat and cannot be caught?

 

correct.

 

Oh I SEE !

Thank you Kobe; what a fountainhead of knowledge you are!

I have just become very much wiser

 

Kobe......

PS
What about "Launch control" ?

 

sorry pete - can't help on this - somebody seems to have torn out the "L" page of my "Boys Encyclopedia of Formula One" . Anyway I think it is the green button thingy on the steering wheel.

you might want to read the follow article..I think it is from last year,

F1.emedia.com

 

There was an interesting interview in Autosport a few months ago, I think it was with Adrian Newey, and it touched on this.

He was saying that if you looked at most of the technical innovations of the last few years, then the ones Ferrari have been at the forefront of have all been legalised, and the ones almost anybody else has innovated have been banned.

The list included, I think :

Semi auto gearboxes (legal)
Electronic traction control (legal/illegal/legal)
Mechanical traction control (legal/illegal)
Active suspension (legal/illegal)
CVT (illegal)
Beryllium pistons etc. (legal/illegal)

The electronic traction control is the most interesting I guess, as it was Benetton who were widely rumoured to be using it illegally while Schumacher was there, and several of the people at Benetton as the time are now at Ferrari.

Pete

 

good old conspiracy theory...

but seems to hold water...

you can add variable force braking developed by Mclaren (banned)
if you can call Turbo innovation - then also banned and not originated by Ferrari...

somebody has to answer for the defence here..

I don't think we can blame the Italians too much - we have our own "innovators" too. Ken Tyrell was perhaps the best british owner who sailed closest to the wind. I remember reading a story about him when he was competing with his team at the Belgium GP in Spa. The rules said that they had to use regular pump petrol and that's what people did. Ken noticed that the local Belgium petrol was of a lower octane - so he drove back to England overnight in a van and picked up some good old UK full strength brew and used that in the race - technically not illegal since it came from a pump - even if it was not the intended one.

 

Talking of innovators / folk who sailed 'close to the wind' - how about Colin Chapman - there is a thin line between genius and madness!!!! I think you had to be a very brave man indeed to drive his cars - safety was not high on his list of priorities (actually, I dont think it even made it on to the list )

 

And the bloke who developed the McLaren F1 road car - Gordon Murray I think - he came up with the Brabham F1 "Fan" car - stuck an enormous fan vertically to the back of the car, to suck the air out from under the car, giving a huge grip advantage - raced once, I think it probably won, and then was banned.

Ecclestone was team owner at the time. Now there's an interesting man ...