[Racer Duck]

Date 2008-01-17
By J.K. Thompson - Motorsport.com


The weather could not have been better. Perhaps not the ideal of offseason tourists, but rain in Southern Spain that presented itself to Formula One teams testing at the Circuito de Jerez in Jerez de la Frontera this week got the circus down to brass tacks.

Spins, offs, beachings and red flags were the inevitable result of drivers in cars without driver aids -- traction control and engine braking.
A part of F1 in various forms since the 1980s before a mid-'90s ban then a return in 2001, electronic gizmos that control excessive wheel spin in certain conditions are out in '08 thanks to rules changes by the sport's governing body, the FIA.

Ditching traction control was seen as a way to placate fans wanting increased driver derring-do. Losing a so-called crutch, drivers are expected to produce errors then more on-track passing. As they must be, the changes were agreed by every F1 team.

But not five days into the new year with its new regulations, voices at the front were heard to question the wisdom of stripping away the aids. British drivers David Coulthard and Jenson Button cautioned that this way danger lay: The Wet.

Traction control, which employs a wonderful system of detecting wheelspin and cutting engine power, oddly enough calls for more welly, or harder tromping on the throttle, to get a car's computer system to provide correct power application, that is, constant acceleration through corners. Without traction control, a film of water between tires and road calls for a lighter right foot. Drivers' training started in Jerez. more...