| With the
decision to ban traction control from Formula One cars as of the British
Grand Prix, there are two brothers who have very different views of this
decision. It was
announced by the FIA that as of the British Grand Prix teams will be forced
to turn off their traction control and launch control systems. Also the use
of fully automatic gearboxes has been banned, with drivers been forced to go
back to the practice of changing gears with paddles on the steering wheel.
 But
for Ralf and Michael Schumacher these changes would see the pair sitting on
different sides of the fence, with Ralf backing the decision while Michael
announcing that he is against such aids been removed.
In respect of the changes Ralf was quoted as saying: "I am surprised about
the changes but as a driver I don't really care as it means more fun and
starting exciting racing again. It was started to prevent the problems we
had with rumours that some teams had traction control. It was a very bad
press for F1 as cheating was involved.
"Traction control was invented, now they have taken it off again, and I
don't quite understand the reason. But from a driver point of view I look
forward to it because I love driving without traction control and I came
into F1 without it.
"I just hope that it does not open other corners, grey zones again, which
gives other teams an advantage and might make the situation more difficult
again."
But for Michael he expressed
his dislike of the changes by saying: "I am not such a big fan of the
changes coming into effect at Silverstone.
"I like the challenge of driving the car with electronic aids, because you
can get closer to perfection. I don’t think the rule changes will have much
effect on the top drivers, but some of the younger, less experienced ones
might find it more difficult."
Michael added that he felt the lack of such devices could pose serious
problems in wet conditions. He added: "Not having traction control can be
dangerous in the wet, especially as the rules now only allow one type of
rain tyre."
Another driver to come out in support of Ralf's view that the removal of
these electronic aids would be better is BMW WilliamsF1 team-mate Juan Pablo
Montoya.
Juan Pablo said: "It is a good thing that launch control is gone because we
didn't really do anything but press a button.
"When you do a start and make a mistake you can't blame anybody, it's your
fault and you are paying for it. But when you do a launch start and get
passed by two or three cars you are only think that whoever did the settings
wrong is an idiot, I only pressed a button.
"This way it's going to take a lot more out of the driver to get a good
start. I have been doing some starts and it has been going quite well.
"Traction control going is a good thing as long as they can police it right.
They will find a way to police it but it is going to be very hard because
there are so many electronics."
As for the policing of the removal of these systems the FIA have sysetms in
place which will help them detect the use of such systems. They have also
offered a £660,000 reward to anybody proving that a team is illegally using
the system. |
