f1 @ c.c.c.p.: traction control axed!

[ sepang, formula 1 ]

The World Motorsport Council met yesterday and the FIA today announced the decisions that were made with regard to the sporting and technical regulations for next season.

The most significant change to the previously published set of rules is that traction control will no longer be permitted.

Article 9.3 of the technical regulations states: ‘No car may be equipped with a system or device which is capable of preventing the driven wheels from spinning under power or of compensating for excessive throttle demand by the driver. Any device or system which notifies the driver of the onset of wheel spin is not permitted.'

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read complete article.

other views:
traction control banned in f1 from 2008

what is traction control?
f1technical:

Traction is the possibility for a car to accellerate. As a result of the driver pushing the throttle, an engine revs up and puts down all torque onto the rear wheels in order to speed up. In some cases, and especially with the high power today's F1 engines deliver, more torque is given to the wheels causing the wheels to spin and hence reducing accelleration. A traction control system is a device to prevent or limit such spinning in the wheels in order to increase the ability to accellerate.

How it works
Various traction control systems have been developed for either racing or road car purposes, some of them more efficient then others. Such a system always monitors car variables and intercepts if too much power is being applied to the wheels. Usually this is realised by sensors that measure rotational speed of the powered wheels and compare that to the speed of the car, measured with either sensors at the unpowered - front, in the case of Formula One - wheels or with a sensor (e.g. a pitot tube) that measures the speed of the car itself. In a few miliseconds after the system detect wheelspin in the rear wheels, power is cut to nullify that spin.

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