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Is it possible that after a "rain" race that the FIA may iniate some sort of general "wet weather" programming for the new ECU's?

I know that they were made to specifically remove the TC, but if the first rain race ends up with a 22 car pile-up and is won by the Force India driver that started from the pits, they may have to do something...

So the question is this: Could it be possible for the FIA to "unlock" some sort of generic TC programming in the SECU for wet races only? Is it possible that this programming is already hidden within the new ECU's?

What do you guys think?

Chris

If a team like Force India or any other backmaker wins, I would be delighted, as I was on May 19th, 1996 or september 26th, 1999.

As a song I know says, Be quiet and drive!

EDIT: sorry, dont know why it appearde twice

In terms of actual implementation, this would be a waste of resources onboard the ECU. If a driver needs to avoid a pile up he needs ABS not TC. Also when have you ever seen a pile up in F1 that involves more than 4-5 cars ?

Anyways as I'm Indian ... Adrian Sutil FTW !!!

rghai6 wrote: Also when have you ever seen a pile up in F1 that involves more than 4-5 cars ?

- 1998 Belgian GP
- many rainy Monaco GPs
- 2002 Australian GP

And I´m sure I´m missing some

Don't forget the tragic 1978 Grand Prix at Monza, where Ronnie Peterson died. That too was a multi-car pileup with ten cars and drivers.

Belatti wrote:

rghai6 wrote: Also when have you ever seen a pile up in F1 that involves more than 4-5 cars ?

- 1998 Belgian GP
- many rainy Monaco GPs
- 2002 Australian GP

And I´m sure I´m missing some

I completely forgot about the 2002 Australlian GP.. Ralf did his thing there Anyways that could not have been avoided by any means. As for Belgium 1998 I dont know what happened there because I dont think they showed F1 in India till 2000 and also I was only 12 back then.

Also to quote Sebastian Bourdais:

In general it never made sense to me to have TC in Formula One. We are supposed to be the best drivers on this planet.

Coming back to conceptual's question:

Conceptual wrote:Is it possible that this programming is already hidden within the new ECU's?

No, this would be a very vulnerable security threat. I mean F1 teams hire the elitest of race engineers and programmers. I doubt there would be anyone there who won't:-
1. Look for such a program already being present on the ECU.
2. If present, try to circumvent the security mechanism implemented by the FIA engineers.

Also FIA on their ECU have implemented monitoring elements that send data from the car to the marshalls in real time.

Now you've got me thinking...If such a program is present and is accessible by a team, how easy would it be for someone to recognize that a driveer is using TC ?

rghai6 wrote:In terms of actual implementation, this would be a waste of resources onboard the ECU. If a driver needs to avoid a pile up he needs ABS not TC. Also when have you ever seen a pile up in F1 that involves more than 4-5 cars ?

Anyways as I'm Indian ... Adrian Sutil FTW !!!

ABS is the solution to a pile up, the prevention is TC (thats what ppl mean)

bizadfar wrote:

rghai6 wrote:In terms of actual implementation, this would be a waste of resources onboard the ECU. If a driver needs to avoid a pile up he needs ABS not TC. Also when have you ever seen a pile up in F1 that involves more than 4-5 cars ?

Anyways as I'm Indian ... Adrian Sutil FTW !!!

ABS is the solution to a pile up, the prevention is TC (thats what ppl mean)

The solution to a pile up is driving the costs of F1 so high that other teams can not compete and we only get 5 cars on the grid.

Michael Schumacher once said “Those who have come into Formula One without experiencing cars devoid of electronic aids will find it tough. To control 800 horsepower relying just on arm muscles and foot sensitivity can turn out to be a dangerous exercise.”

onon wrote:Michael Schumacher once said “Those who have come into Formula One without experiencing cars devoid of electronic aids will find it tough. To control 800 horsepower relying just on arm muscles and foot sensitivity can turn out to be a dangerous exercise.”

So, according to this statement we are expecting to have a disasterous season start? I'm wondering which drivers will stand up next season thanks to the lack of driving aids.

ackzsel wrote:So, according to this statement we are expecting to have a disasterous season start? I'm wondering which drivers will stand up next season thanks to the lack of driving aids.

I think the MS quote was referring to incoming drivers who didn't have experience driving without electronic aids. Meaning that if they only previously raced with EA's, driving a Formula One car would be much more difficult, seeing how they are "devoided" of electronic aids such as TC and engine braking for example, and are more powerful as well.

And that to be able to control a car with less, or no electronic aids takes time, as there is a higher physical demand, which may take a while to become acustomed to.

At least thats what I understood from the quote.

we will just see the same as the no TC time. The bad/good drivers will be further away (gap will increase) from the best drivers.

And more frequent accidents due to driving error (then again there is huge runoff in major areas of some circuits, but not Albert Park )

After reading the Stewards Report from Singapore, I was surprised to see four teams, McLaren, Ferrari, FIF1 and BMW, running with an older version of SECU firmware/software. I had previously assumed that all SECU's would be exactly the same in all respects.

[edit: added]

Does anyone have any idea what is being developed/changed in the system?

I have answerer! Apparently, teams are allowed to run one revision behind the current release. Teams who have pointed out bugs or requested changes to the firmware will go straight to the new version. Other teams are given time to test the new revision before putting it into their race car.

Source: ATM_ANDY