Translation:
It sounds like MES is ready for field tests with the new ECU. I reckon they will still allow profiles and mapping but based on a higher bus standard than the old CAN bus. Has anybody specific knowledge what kind of bus standards and integrated chips MES will be using?Introduced in 2008 under the reign of the old president of the FIA Max Mosley, the ECU, standard electronic system had no problems since, except the recent business around the Renault engines. The fact remains that the ECU will be used once again over the period of 2013 – 2015, still subcontracted to the duo McLaren Electronic Systems – Microsoft.
Given that the introduction of the 1.6L V6 engine has been pushed back by one year, into 2014, one year of transition with the V8s will occur in 2013. The fact remains that the new version of the ECU will allow more freedom than today for the last year of operating the naturally aspirated engines.
Peter Van Manen, the representative for the ECU to McLaren Eletronic, points out that the next year's standard electronics version will be more open and will give more freedom to the engineers. 75 % of the system will be standardized, but 25 % will be liberated for the use of the teams. Nevertheless, not to be mistaken, the system is still designed to avoid issues like traction and launch control. The restrictions are reduced, but remain an important point in Formula 1.
Apparently the planning for an upgraded ECU were kept on schedule, which makes sense. You don't want to introduce too many new things at the same time. The teams will have time in 2013 to learn the new more powerful SECU and it's associated tools. The teething problems can be ironed out and in 2014 the new system simply has to be switched to the turbo power train. It also gives the engineers the opportunity to do test runs of the turbos with the proper new ECU from day one.
