Is Jarno Trulli complimenting or complaining about Ferrari?

February 13, 2008 at 9:20 pm by Keith Collantine

Drivers don’t pay compliments to other drivers or other teams very often. On the face of it, Jarno Trulli seems to think Kimi Raikkonen should start clearing a place on his mantlepiece for the 2008 FIA F1 World Drivers’ Championship trophy:

When you watch Ferrari’s performance on the track your arms drop [in amazement]. They brake where they want but, above all, they accelerate where they want, when I always have to be careful giving power, which is no longer managed by traction control.

But in January Trulli suggested at least one team had found a way to re-create the banned launch control systems:

Having analysed the behaviour on the track both now and in the tests in December, the changes between them are many – and in several cases suspicious.

Traction control and launch control are different systems but both are concerned with reducing wheelspin. Is Trulli suggesting that Ferrari are using an illegal traction control device?

Toyota and Ferrari tested on their own at Bahrain for six days so Trulli will have had plenty of time to take notice of what they were doing.

Last year Ferrari ran away with the first race of the season at Melbourne and Kimi Raikkonen scored a crushing win. But after a change to the rules governing the underside of the car, which Ferrari were believed to be getting around with a flexing floor, their advantage over the rest of the field was lessened.

Is Trulli sending out messages that he thinks Ferrari have gotten too far in front of the rest of the pack and need to be pegged back? Here’s what else he had to say:

In my opinion they are at least half a second faster per lap, even with respect to McLaren. The championship already looks over to me before it has started.

The last time Ferrari and McLaren tested side-by-side was at Valencia three weeks ago, where there was very little to choose between the cars. In the Bahrain test Raikkonen posted a quickest time of 1’30.015, almost a second quicker than Trulli’s 1′30.994.

Which leaves two questions: are Ferrari really that far ahead of everyone else? And is Trulli trying to nobble them?

Photo copyright: Ferrari S.p.A.

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26 comments on Is Jarno Trulli complimenting or complaining about Ferrari?

alan said on 14th February 2008, 20:59

Excellent explanation on possible ways to counteract loss of traction control – if there is such a system – you can bet someone will try it – possibly for the rules to be rearranged afterwards to suit!! – but lets see if any team has a greater advantage than there nearest rivals and if so then the automatic ban of them – mclaren- ferrari – et all – but the clock is ticking for the first race now – rock on !!!- ps the first really wet drive should show who is using a system like that?? – surely

Ade said on 14th February 2008, 21:15

I think you are totally wrong. The TC is not as simple a more controlled throttle application, the point is not how to manipulate throttle input, you don’t have to, activate the brake has the same effect. The whole point is to detect wheel spin/slip rate und keep the wheel slip rate at the optimum(nothing to do with G-force???), because the tyre has maxmium grip within a certain slip rate window. Although there’s the maxmium grip within this window, the tyre wear incease with the slip rate.

alan said on 14th February 2008, 22:07

So ade do you mean stcky tyres wear out quicker due to rubber loss? (caused by torque/engine load)- if so that’s been about for eons? – possibly I got it wrong if so sorry

Fred Schechter said on 15th February 2008, 0:46

I agree that its not simple “throttle application”.

Ade
What would you suggest for defining a true traction control workaround for a fixed ECU box?

My impression was that Trulli’s statement was on performance he noted (not particularly noises, as we all know what last year’s TC sounded like). Yes, traction has to do with wheel slip (107% optimal) and slip angle (aim for 6-7%) but as it’s likely that such a workaround wouldn’t be able to incorporate additional information from other onboard telemetry (an assumption on my part) my thought was simply to identify a few simple factors and improve them. Those simple factors were in the realm of throttle movement (initial foot input, (force applied)) G-force currently sustained (in X, Y, & Z axis). With this information (And the ability to mechanically control the “actual input from foot” then tailor that output to optimize “throttle lever arm input” (consider an algorithm that could contain vehicle rate of speed, “intended acceleration change”, current forces along axis, maximum acceleration increase likely to generate desired wheel slip. Maybe there would be a way to do something that’d improve driver acceleration application, or, a number we could refer to as “foot-downed-ness”
Gee, making up words is fun!!

My theory is likely waay off, (if anyone is actually doing it). I’d love to hear a vastly better suggestion of how to apply said “traction control”

Maybe simply active brake application? For that matter is “braking control via computer legal? Thoughts,, anyone?

Alianora La Canta said on 15th February 2008, 1:28

I had a comment about circumventing the ECU, but it got a bit overgrown. Suffice to say that it looks perfectly plausible and Jarno Trulli is right to be worried. Mind you, Ferrari look so fast at the moment that even if they had TC and it was removed, I’m not convinced that the other teams could defeat it this year.

Michael K said on 15th February 2008, 8:18

Fred, if you had the right information, then your system would help. I doubt that it is allowed to have extra computing power in the car for this system to work. I don’t fully know the rules, but maybe the steering wheel could be a place to put a processor or two…
G-Force sensors alone won’t be enough as then the system will start regulating if there is a steep incline for example unless the car exactly knew where it was all the time. My guess is that Ferrari have a very good setup of differentials that minimize the possible loss of traction in a mechanical way, some sort of mechanical AYC or Active LSD…

sriram said on 15th February 2008, 11:29

I dont know whether Ferrari is cheating or not but all i know is Kimi is damn Faster in any car he drives(his Record speaks),because he’s got the feel of his(cars)Rear Wheel,so with or without Traction He can go as fast as the car can handle.

Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 15th February 2008, 13:58

Autosprint have alleged the standard ECU system can be exploited to run traction control systems. Here’s a Partial translation

Axis said on 15th February 2008, 17:50

The alleged exploit of the standard ECU concerns launch control for starts only, not traction control. However one is left wondering if there are other “security flaws” in the programming of the Mclaren boxes.

Alianora La Canta said on 15th February 2008, 22:04

Almost certainly. Remember, Microsoft are the software designers…

Alvin said on 25th February 2008, 14:38

I hate Ferrari too. Not because they are fast or win many championships but because how they behave when they win. Especially how they behave or talk about other teams when they do the same thing. And it doesn’t help either that the FIA seems biased in favour of them .