Formula 1 blog - Linksheaven

Spec ECU open to tender

May 27th, 2006

The FIA have opened tender for for the spec ECU they want to be used from 2008 -2010. Bids have to be in by June 23rd. While some people think it’s a good idea, this post from Weltmeister in the F1 forums when the topic last appeared shows why it isn’t and how the problem could be solved without introducing spec parts.

This has been and continues to be one of the great technical debates of the last couple of years, but as do so many of the situations regarding the FIA and thier rules the standardized ECU is not the only, or close to best solution to achieve what they want and what you and I want. This is just another example of them not really thinking through all the angles, or taking the time to properly evaluate and come up with a real solution that does the best job of fixing the issues without creating more problems than it solves.

What’s the main goal of this standard ECU? Cut development costs on electronics, which is one of the single biggest areas of development and experimentation these days. 2. Create a more level playing field by eliminating any team from spending more time and effort on this area and far outdoing the others. 3. Eliminate much of the possibility for cheating and ending in thier minds the possiblity for illegal launch and traction control systems that operate outside the allowances, and any other general electrical wizardry.

Well to a degree, I will agree with the idea that a standard unit will reduce costs to a certain extent, but the other 2 are complete shite. As you say, I will most definately attest to the idea that whatever can be gained will be gained by the teams. So much so in fact, that I find the notion that a sealed unit will end cheating and wizardry to be almost enough for me to piss myself laughing. There is no such thing as a sealed unit anymore, and that is part of the problem, the FIA always thinking in terms of 5 or 10 years ago, instead of thinking as they should, what happens 5 years from now. Back a few years ago when they introduced the pit to car data sending, and Mclaren fixed that secondary oil leak wirelessly from the pits at Monte Carlo and all that, well one of the reasons the rule went away so fast, is because it became frighteningly clear that nearly half the grid was not only looking into what they could do to thier own cars, but what they could possibly hack into on thier competitors, and it quickly became a real competition and safety concern.

If the teams are willing to go that far, and believe me, they are willing to go that far, some of these guys in F1 are some of the top electronics and computer minds in the world, and there are more than a few working in F1 that were or were suspected of being some of the worlds top computer hackers and white collar criminals, so keep that in mind. Bottom line is if this unit has to at all be connected the cars electrical system, which it most definately does, there is still a very high likelyhood of tampering in some way, shape or form, and the FIA and most racing organizations have a bad habit of thinking that because they limit technology, that the rest of the known world did too. And there really is no electical or software system that is truly unhackable if there is enough money, talent, equipment, and glory as a motive.

So for those reasons, I heavily question how much merit there really is in an idea to eliminate cheating in electronics. And in some ways, do we want it completely gone? Yeah we probably all want fair play, but cheating is a part of motorsports history and not even cheating, but exploiting the most out of what you have and maybe pushing the grey areas too far, do we want that history wiped away forever? Because a move like this doesn’t just go after cheating, it takes away a huge area of exploration in design and in the advancement of the automobile, let’s not forget how many electronics are in today’s road cars because of what was pushed to the limit by someone in F1 years ago. It’s a bigger move than just taking out a piece of equipment and replacing it with a sealed unit.

So if we can accept the possiblity that cheating is always going to be possible on some level in the field of electronics and software, then we can agree that this move cannot possibly eliminate foul play completely, therefore severely reducing it’s necessity. So accepting that situation, why not look at other solutions.

Most of us would like to see at the very least, a reduction in driver aids. That doesn’t have to mean the end of electronics and the beginning of a limited era. There are numerous options. The best of which, is for the FIA to simply get more involved with the teams, and that process may even help them to keep from coming up with all these other ass hat ideas. There is the technology now, to use a variety of electronic, harmonic, and pressure sensitive chip pads, that can be placed on key components of the car, and send back a frequency to the FIA, to prove whether certain components are functioning as they should be, and since the FIA already have a data link showing quite a bit of the cars data from most systems, it would simply be a process of making sure everything links up.

Systems that could be much better regulated with this system would include Anti lock braking, Traction control, launch control, it would be possible with this system to incorporate an electronic controlled clutch system and an electronic controlled H pattern stick in the car, forcing in essence manual shifts with technology, and it could be enforced with the data pads that the clutch operates and the shifting mechanism works when supposed to by sensing vibrations in the mechancal components, also the differentials could come under different regs and be monitored not to be constantly adjusted if that was desired, and this is just the tip of the iceberg on what you could do. The problem is, is that this is expensive, to use this system, it would take maybe 3 or 4 FIA officials per garage instead of the one, and the estimate I have heard for cost would be around the 10 million mark to establish and then around 2 million per year to run, but in a multi billion dollar business, it really comes down to just one greedy bastard making a small sacrifice to accomplish this. Second problem, is that some of the teams are not real fond of how close this would get the FIA with the knowledge of thier cars, but would you rather lose the ability to play around with things. Or if you like, compare it to the question of “Would you rather shave your nether region, or be castrated?”

The point is, is that it doesn’t have to be one way or the other, there are good alternatives, but in the real world of the FIA, good ideas never seem to get anywhere. I’m coming from living on the other side of the mirror for the last 2 and a half decades, so I know how hard it is to find an edge, and I also know that most of the cheating doesn’t come from a desire to screw over the world, it comes from the desire to accomplish and the need to push the envelope to make the car faster to win the quest for glory. To me, that ideal is one that built the sport, and it maybe gets dented from time to time and drug through the mud by people that take it too far, but it’s all part of the game. Technology and the will to find what others cannot, has been one of the main draws to formula one, not just for the fans, but for it’s manufacturers who have long used the sport as both a learning excercise and a chance to develope new ideas and concepts. I’m all for fair play, and I would love to see an arrangment that allowed the driver to be put back in as more of a factor than he currently is in the car, but not at the cost of losing such a critical ideal to the roots of the sport.

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