 Ferrari Using Legal Traction Control? Monday March 26th, 2001
The Italian team have been under the spotlight this season, after rumours emerged about their engines running illegal engine software in order to stop the wheels from spinning out of the corners, five races before traction control makes its official return. However, according to F1 Racing, Ferrari have found a loophole in the regulations, which state that the maximum time allowed for a gear change is 200 milliseconds. However, the rules do not set a minimum time limit, and that's what Ferrari are supposedly taking advantage of. Winners of the first two rounds of the 2001 season, Ferrari have developed a new gearbox that changes each gear in 30 milliseconds, thus allowing 170 milliseconds to control wheelspin with the new gear engaged. During this period of time, it can be argued that a gear change is taking place, so controlling wheelspin during those 170 milliseconds is not against the rules, and therefore the system is legal. It is speculated that this is one of the reasons why Ferrari voted against the re-introduction of traction control at the start of the season. Traction Control will become legal in Formula One, as of this year's Spanish Grand Prix, on April 29th.
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A loophole in the Formula One technical regulations is allowing world champions Ferrari to run with a legal form of traction control on their cars, according to a report in F1 Racing.
(03-11-2005): 
