June 18, 2013

WHEN IS TRACTION CONTROL NOT TRACTION CONTROL?...

...When they can't figure out how you do it and you don't get caught.


Traction control has been banned from Formula 1 for years now but anyone sitting by the hairpin turn in Montreal was well aware of Red Bull's superior traction out of  corners.  Vettel certainly smoked everyone off the line at the start and had gained a 2.5 second advantage on Lewis Hamilton by the end of the first lap. There is no doubt the RB9 is hooked up.
A sharp eyed reader of Autosprint noticed Vettel's Webber's car was leaving the curious set of tire marks you see in the picture:  It looks like traction control, it smells like traction control, it certainly sounded like traction control.

What's going on here?  As you can well imagine, if a viewer can spot this on TV, rival teams have been all over it for a while,  complaining to FIA repeatedly we're told.  Despite the best efforts of FIA technical personel, nobody has been able to come up with anything illegal on the RB9.   

Traction control as a specific component is banned but its function is now duplicated by all, with different degrees of success, via engine maps that manipulate torque curves and use partial firing of cylinders to achieve the a similar result.   Mapping is  one of the black arts of modern racing and one essentially impossible to police.  
Even with the insane tech of today's F1 the old maxims still apply: " if you 'ain't cheating, you ain't trying" and " it's only cheating if you get caught".

Carry on.

27 comments:

  1. I was at the race (BTW, GA is terrible here) and also noticed that Merc was doing some funny stuff on downshifts. My guess was engine work to help with stability in slowing or engine braking. Anyway, I guess it's also only an issue if it works.

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  2. That was Webber's car at the hairpin the viewer caught based on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zxig8iM7jDU#!

    Here are two more images of the same lines at different parts of the track: http://sia1.subirimagenes.net/img/2013/06/16/13061608333271523.jpg
    http://sia1.subirimagenes.net/img/2013/06/16/130616084341460936.jpg

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  3. Wow, I'm not even mad. I'm just impressed.

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  4. Vettels dick... your on it again

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  5. I actually see a very similar trail at my local kart track. Leaving the corner you tend to see it as the rear axel vibrates as the unloaded wheel reseats. Unless they're secretly running a solid rear axel, I'd suspect something trick with the diff. Right wheel spins, then the left, then the right.

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  6. It's like people have never heard of wheel hop before?

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  7. Scarb says it isn't a form of traction control, so it's not traction control as far as I'm concerned.

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  8. well, as long as the FIA says it's not traction control, mapping is just a means of controlling torque...

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  9. Everyone takes advantage of mapping, so basically your point is completely moot. If you're pointing fingers at Red Bull, you need to be pointing fingers everywhere else. Red Bull and Vettel did this exact same thing at Monza last year or the year before. They were beasts off the corners and I'm pretty sure know one was idiotically calling them out for using traction control then. This is driveline oscillation you don't need to make a mountain out of a mole hill every time Ferrari isn't in the news. And I'm much more inclined to think that Scarbs knows far more about this situation than you ever will. At least he doesn't piss and moan about every little thing that doesn't involve Ferrari in a good light. What's the point of this article again? Did you get tired of bashing Lewis Hamilton or something?

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  10. AoO continued dislike for RBR is perhaps getting a bit paranoid. When the Scuderia or Kimi start winning again all will be in balance, but until then RBR is the best TEAM.

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  11. Maybe I did not make myself as clear as I wished to, I'm not accusing, I'm admiring the endless resourcefulness of F1 engineers! The RBR/Renault team is just doing it better than anyone else at the moment. It's NOT TC unless the FIA say it is but it's for sure a matter of semantics as drivers can switch maps in different parts of the track.
    A modified saying that applies to every team, including your beloved RBR? "It only cheating if we can't figure out how you're doing that"! Cheers.

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  12. If it is TC (I don't believe it is...simply looks like a very stiff car getting slightly unloaded over the expansion joint while under full throttle/wheelspin, and 'skipping' up the road as grip returns/falls away repeatedly a bunch of times every second; or as Scars says it's driveline oscillation), I'm not sure there's much to admire. It'd have to be the world's most unsophisticated TC system...

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  13. Remember all the trouble RB has had with their KERS?

    I thought years ago that that was strange for such a technically competent team and that they must be doing something different from everyone else. No one else was having KERS failures. Also RB has always had superior exit acceleration from turns. These two observations plus the new photos convince me that RB is modulating the KERS torque in response to the shock pressure signal and applying slightly more torque when higher shock pressure indicates higher traction potential. They may also be doing the same thing under braking. I'm not sure this would be illegal since it is not really traction control simply a means to identify and take advantage of unused traction potential. What do you think???

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  14. You guys have little to no understanding of how modern engine management works if you think this. There's no way to duplicate traction control via "mapping" I've been tuning for over a decade now, I would know.
    The only way to duplicate traction control with the maps in your ECU is to have a map THAT IS TRACTION CONTROL. IE, a map that limits torque in certain gears and speeds by not giving fuel or spark to certain cylinders.
    That, however, IS traction control, even if it's inside the ECU and not a separate component.
    And don't tell me "Oh, this is the highest echelon of motorsport, you just aren't capable of what they are." The fact is, there's no way to duplicate traction control unless you create a map specifically to do traction control.
    If they just have a few different maps in the car the driver can switch between to make different power levels, it's not traction control. It's just different maps with different levels of HP. It's still on the driver to make sure that lower HP number doesn't spin the tires.

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  15. I have no love for Red Bull, but your hatred of all things NOT Ferrari and your childish digs at Lewis Hamilton wherever you can get them in are very well known. The only thing I like about Red Bull is Mark Webber, and they treat him like dirt so I dislike them even more than all the other (numerous) reasons I can't stand them.


    I mistook the tone of the article for taking a (arguably well deserved) jab at Red Bull as accusatory. For that I apologize.

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  16. That reminds me, I haven't made fun of Hammy in a while :)

    http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/05/08/article-1018786-012CA24C00000578-846_468x540.jpg

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  17. I believe you do go overboard when it comes to Lewis, but that's just hilarious. What in the world made him think that was a good idea?

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  18. Well, if they could make engine maps that kept the exhausts blowing even when off throttle, you thing playing with torque curves to maximize traction is far fetched? I'm pretty sure they are all doing it to some degree, stripes or no stripes on the tarmac.

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  19. Lewis has improved tremendously, I only got to make fun of him missing his pit stall and his funny hairdo, CG and I take full credit for this newfound maturity in the lad! ;)

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  20. You should be commended on the lack of Hamilton hate recently, even going the other way sometimes, but it does seem that RB are the new target :)
    Carry on, I say!

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  21. I don't think a TC system would allow that much wheel spin, seeing as that's exactly what it's trying to prevent. That said, the lines seem to alternate side to side (right spins, left spins, right spins etc.) so probably some clever mapping of the e-diff ecu. As others have said though, at what point does a power limiting fuel map become traction control?
    A completely unenforceable rule in my opinion, unless you control ALL fuel maps, diff software etc.

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  22. Very nice article thanks for sharing.

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