APRIL 27, 2001
Hakkinen against electronic age
FORMER world champion Mika Hakkinen is expecting the new electronics to open up a wealth of opportunity for the Grand Prix teams after their introduction at this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.
Finn Hakkinen believes that traction control is just one of many developments that the relaxation in electronics rules will allow.
"With the new regulations, it gives more options to drivers and teams to find different limits in different corners," said Hakkinen.
"You can definitely now set the car up differently in high speed and low speed corners. In the past, it was definitely a case where high speed and slow speed circuits were very similar in terms of electronics.
"There are definitely a lot of different parameters that you can use. It's not only just traction control which is the main gain. There are a lot of things that you can do to help the performance."
One of those is the almost unnoticed introduction of automatic gearboxes in Formula One, doing away with another driver input. Again, the move is popular with Hakkinen.
"It definitely makes it better to have an automatic upshift," he said. "Because you can maximize the performance of the engine.
"When you do shift from first to second or sixth to seventh, you can always get the best out of the engine in every gear."