Mclaren ECU's contain a "hidden" feature?

[Shaddock]

The only limitation is that the map changing can't be automatic...the driver has to control it via the wheel...I believe this is why there are entry/mid/exit buttons on the Ferrari wheel.

But you could wire the ECU to the gear change paddles. 1st gear would give you map 1 with a limit on the amount of torque the engine produces (up to the limit of traction) at 19k the drive changes into 2nd and the engine swaps to map 2 with a higher torque limit all the way into top. This isn't TC in the true sense (no feedback), more launch control, but it would work. It would be relatively straight forward on a laptop before the race stared to fine tune these limits depending on track temp - humidity etc.

Yes they could but then it's not under the drivers control as such and so that would make it illegal AFAIK.

Hmmm, grey area. As the driver makes conscious decision requiring physical action to change gear then it isn’t automatic in that sense. You could put a switch on the steering wheel to disable this function or make it so that a gentle or hard (depending on driver preference) flick of the paddles swaps maps along with the gear ratio.

[Ciro Pabón]

Just one more thing: Trulli was talking about starts. You don't have to complicate yourselves so much. One button is enough. After all, at a start, you can guarantee that the wheels are going to spin and you're going over friction coefficient. You have to map spark timing for a seriously limited engine (torque to be obtained is low: it has to keep the tire stuck to the ground).

Besides, downforce is zero, so you only can use around 1.200 Kg of force to launch the car. This mapping works only for a couple of seconds, before downforce kicks in and allow you to have more of a "foot of lead". Unless it's forbidden, all teams must have some kind of strategy here. Trulli is complaining some other team is doing it better than his, I suppose. Sissy.

[Shaddock]

Just one more thing: Trulli was talking about starts. You don't have to complicate yourselves so much. One button is enough. After all, at a start, you can guarantee that the wheels are going to spin and you're going over friction coefficient. You have to map spark timing for a seriously limited engine (torque to be obtained is low: it has to keep the tire stuck to the ground).

Besides, downforce is zero, so you only can use around 1.200 Kg of force to launch the car. This mapping works only for a couple of seconds, before downforce kicks in and allow you to have more of a "foot of lead". Unless it's forbidden, all teams must have some kind of strategy here. Trulli is complaining some other team is doing it better than his, I suppose. Sissy.

Yes, it’s a very rudimentary form of TC, useful for the start or for traction out of any 1st or 2nd corners. However, if you could build into each map a maximum permitted acceleration of the engine in each gear then you have a slightly more sophisticated form of TC. Any faster than this 'maximum' and fueling and ignition timings are reduced.

The maximum acceleration of the engine could be determined by testing with the old ECU with TC and measuring how fast the engine can ‘rev’ in each gear with varying fuel loads, downforce, temp and tyre condition. This is probably already known to the teams.

Eg, in 3rd it takes 0.3s to go from 13,000 rpm to 13,500 on the limit of traction. Any faster would mean wheelspin. I’m not sure if the new ECU would take all these parameters, but I’m sure some software engineers are trying.