APRIL 14, 2001
Technical chiefs do not fear traction control
FERRARI technical director Ross Brawn and his McLaren counterpart Adrian Newey have both said that traction control will not change the current pecking order in Formula One.
Traction control will return to the sport from the Spanish Grand Prix at the end of April, but Brawn and Newey have their reservations that it will drastically change the grid and race positions.
"Traction control systems only make the best of the traction available," explained Brawn. "So a car with good traction will still be better than one with poor traction."
Brawn said that the freedom in that area of design after Barcelona will, however, allow more developed starting systems.
"Automatic starting cars with good traction in the wet will do better than the cars with poor traction in the wet," he said.
Newey agreed, but added: "Systems can make errors just as humans can make errors.
"So the human errors may be something in the past after Barcelona. Electronic brains replace human brains but they are not fool proof."