[Racer Duck]

A major talking point for the new season surrounds the arrival of the Standardised Electronic Control Unit, or SECU, and with it the elimination of driver aids such as traction control and engine braking systems.

The SECU enables the FIA to police an article of the regulations central to the ‘DNA’ of Formula One racing - that “the driver shall drive the car alone and unaided”. But, what should we expect as this new era dawns? And how difficult is it to tame a 2008-spec Formula One car? Double world champion Fernando Alonso and Renault team mate, Nelson Piquet Jr, explain…

“It is in the low-speed (second gear) corners that you notice the difference because that is where the traction control would normally kick in,” reveals Alonso. “That means you have to change your driving style quite dramatically. Last year we used to go straight to full throttle, but now we need to be gentler and feather the throttle.

“Another difference this year occurs when you get wheelspin because, in the absence of traction control, it becomes impossible to stop it - even if you back off the throttle. When you have wheelspin, the revs rise and you have more torque, which makes the wheels spin even more. Therefore, to deliver a good lap time, it is essential to avoid wheelspin through all parts of the corner, and that is not easy.”

Alonso also highlights the variation in steering inputs: “With traction control we used to get more understeer at the exit of the corner, but this is no longer an issue. Rather, from midcorner onwards, the car oversteers and slides more, which again influences your driving style and the racing line.”

The new regulations have also removed the engine braking systems (EBS) that used to moderate the locking of the rear wheels, and give greater stability, under heavy braking. It is the loss of this system, rather than the loss of traction control, that Piquet believes has the greatest impact.

“The biggest difference you notice with the 2008 cars is not the loss of traction control, but the absence of engine braking control because the car is much more unstable, especially on used tyres,” says Nelson. “When you look at the telemetry, the brake pressure is now much less compared to last year. With EBS you could brake much harder; if you did that without the electronics, you will simply lock up your wheels.”

Alonso echoes Piquet’s sentiments and emphasises the need to adapt set-up accordingly. “Without EBS you do suffer with locking of the rear tyres because stopping a car travelling at 300 km/h is not easy,” he explains. “You have to adapt the set-up of the car to compensate for the loss of all the systems. It will be down to the driver to adapt and I am convinced that as the season develops we will have forgotten what it was like to drive with these aids.”

And yet, despite all the changes, the speed of the cars remains almost unaffected. The loss of the driver aids represents a loss of between three and four tenths per lap, a difference that is unnoticeable to the naked eye. More important, perhaps, is what the fans now know they are watching: 22 of the world’s best drivers, in total control of the most demanding racing cars on the planet.

from The Official Formula 1 Website

[DOF_power]

>
^ Still it probably won't affect overtaking at all or the quality of the show.

Huge wake turbulence on the racing line combined with the fact that the cars can't go fast or at all outside the racing line, that's if there's even an "outside" (Monaco, Hungaroring, Magny-Cours) is really the problems facing modern F1. And these have not been tackled at all.

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by DOF_power

>
^ Still it probably won't affect overtaking at all or the quality of the show.

Huge wake turbulence on the racing line combined with the fact that the cars can't go fast or at all outside the racing line, that's if there's even an "outside" (Monaco, Hungaroring, Magny-Cours) is really the problems facing modern F1. And these have not been tackled at all.

sort of making the cars fit the venue instead of the other way around?

[DOF_power]

It's neither fixing the cars nor fixing the venues, it's more like populist smoke screen 2.0 .
2.0 because this exactly what they said in 1994 when these electronics were first banned but the actual racing didn't improved, and surprise-surprise it was the same drivers that were at the top.

It's simply like this:
good car/chassis + good setup = good performance
bad car/chassis and/or poor setup = good possibility of crash

Contrary to popular belief it's actually very very easy to crash an F1 car with the 2007 electronics if a driver doesn't understand its limits or didn't set it up properly or missed a differential or brake-bias lever switch on the steering wheel.

[WestCoast]

Originally Posted by DOF_power

Contrary to popular belief it's actually very very easy to crash an F1 car with the 2007 electronics if a driver doesn't understand its limits or didn't set it up properly or missed a differential or brake-bias lever switch on the steering wheel.

At least the "popular belief" will be that now it's more driver skill, as opposed to just pointing the car.

[Racer Duck]

Which, I think, brings up a question. It just occurred to me reading the most recent posts that we have a recently retired Champion who garnered most of his titles "pointing" the car, so to speak. It makes me wonder if his "score" might have been much different had he been forced to "drive" the car as the drivers today are claiming they have to do?

[WestCoast]

M. Schumacher got his seven titles driving through a whole bunch of technical and aerodynamic changes and still persevered.
The guy was just great, to the point of being boring.

[DOF_power]

Originally Posted by Racer Duck

Which, I think, brings up a question. It just occurred to me reading the most recent posts that we have a recently retired Champion who garnered most of his titles "pointing" the car, so to speak. It makes me wonder if his "score" might have been much different had he been forced to "drive" the car as the drivers today are claiming they have to do?

Than you don't know that they actually had electronic "aids" in the early 1990s witch were banned in 1994 until 2001, in witch time Schu had won 3 titles and was now going twards his 4. On relatively equal cars in 1995 (Benetton, Williams, sometimes the Ferraris too) he blew everyone away, then in 96 after win in the wet at spanish GP by 45 seconds he was compared to A. Senna and Jim Clark.

[Racer Duck]

I purposefully worded my question the way I did to see how it would be interpreted. Seems everyone thought I was downgrading M. Schumacher.

On the contrary, I believe he's so good that, had the other drivers not had the driving aids he would have probably garnered a few more championships.

There's no doubt, in my mind at least, that he's probably never faced another driver in comparable race cars who was/is his equal or better. And, I believe he retired because he was bored. Baring mechanical or pit problems, his being on the podium at the end of the day was typically a forgone conclusion.