traction control

[D_Mike]

could you have, in your F1 car, a mechanical device within the airbox that restricts the amount of air flow to the engine depending on speed. So at low speed, you have effectively a restrictor on the intake, and at higher speeds you have no restriction.

or perhaps it would be better to link it to throttle pedal position somehow?

or would this just not work at all?

[anonymous-user]

D_Mike said:

could you have, in your F1 car, a mechanical device within the airbox that restricts the amount of air flow to the engine depending on speed. So at low speed, you have effectively a restrictor on the intake, and at higher speeds you have no restriction.

or perhaps it would be better to link it to throttle pedal position somehow?

or would this just not work at all?

Don't you think it would be more likely to slow the car down rather than act as an effective TC?
There's a very fine line between performance enhancing TC and just making the car slow. Road car TC is a good example. It prevents wheelspin effectively, but a skilled driver is ultimately faster with it switched off. So you'd have no chance at all with a crude, indirect, open loop TC system like this. How would you control wheelslip to the precise levels required to optimise traction performance? Don't underestimate how good a highly skilled driver can act as a closed loop controller!

[Racefan_uk]

D_Mike said:

could you have, in your F1 car, a mechanical device within the airbox that restricts the amount of air flow to the engine depending on speed. So at low speed, you have effectively a restrictor on the intake, and at higher speeds you have no restriction.

or perhaps it would be better to link it to throttle pedal position somehow?

or would this just not work at all?

Err, isn't this how a throttle butterfly works anyway? At least, on an older, mechanical linkage? You know, smaller amount of throttle, smaller opening tolet air in etc...

It's up to the input of the drivers brain and right foot to modulate the amount of power that goes to the rear wheels. I still can't understand what people's obsession with traction control is, it removes a huge amount of the talent a driver has to have in controling a vehicle at it's optimum.

[D_Mike]

i know its very crude but i wanted to know a few things...

would it actually work at reducing the power of the engine... or just not do a very good job.

you'd have to have a very finely tuned system to do with opening the aperture...

also I'm not sure but i think the regulations say that there should be no modulation of the throttle control that driver inputs...

you could have rear and front wheel sensors and hook it up to the variable restrictor and that is not affecting the driver's input at all.

[Dunit]

I just beem looking on the autosport site and Toyota are allready having concerns that some teams have found away around the ban . Siting that that some cars sound strange as the pull out of the tight turns.

[anonymous-user]

D_Mike said:

would it actually work at reducing the power of the engine... or just not do a very good job.

you'd have to have a very finely tuned system to do with opening the aperture...

also I'm not sure but i think the regulations say that there should be no modulation of the throttle control that driver inputs...

you could have rear and front wheel sensors and hook it up to the variable restrictor and that is not affecting the driver's input at all.

Yes, an air intake restrictor would reduce max engine power
The regs say throttle control must be a fixed map between pedal input and torque demand (which is not the same as throttle opening). It gets complicaated after that!
You can't use wheelspeed inputs to control engine torque in any kind of closed loop control system.

[anonymous-user]

Dunit said:

I just beem looking on the autosport site and Toyota are allready having concerns that some teams have found away around the ban . Siting that that some cars sound strange as the pull out of the tight turns.

They should focus their concern more on the fact that other teams are considerably faster. Bleating about TC is not going to save them.

[jon-]

uktrailmonster said:

Dunit said:

I just beem looking on the autosport site and Toyota are allready having concerns that some teams have found away around the ban . Siting that that some cars sound strange as the pull out of the tight turns.

They should focus their concern more on the fact that other teams are considerably faster. Bleating about TC is not going to save them.

Toyota are used to that though...

[chris_w]

What about applying the brakes to control wheelspin? Out of the wheelspeed/throttle loop but might cause overheating of rear brakes and possibly telltale glowing discs...

Toyota are probably reluctant to name names as someone might point out their less than squeaky clean past in rallying!

[anonymous-user]

chris_w said:

What about applying the brakes to control wheelspin? Out of the wheelspeed/throttle loop but might cause overheating of rear brakes and possibly telltale glowing discs...

Powered brakes are illegal in F1. So no means to apply them electronically.
The standard ECU has no functionality for this kind of control either,
So another non-starter.