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Drivers coming to grips with no traction control

MELBOURNE: Unlike most of his peers, Rubens Barrichello remembers what its like to be in total control of a Formula One car, so he can barely wait to start the 2008 season.

“I feel like a boy with a new toy! Having driven without (traction control) for many years in the ’90s, it didn’t take me long to adjust,” Barrichello said of the biggest change in F1 this season.

“It will throw up new challenges, particularly when it’s wet, but they are challenges that I’m looking forward to.”

Traction control — in which onboard computers prevented excessive wheelspin — has been banned from F1, and a standard electronic control unit will be installed on all cars to track data.

That puts the onus for controlled acceleration back on the driver, who can no longer just put his foot down and allow the computer to do the rest.

Traction control was allowed in F1 from 2001 to last season, so most contemporary drivers have no experience of racing in F1 without it. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa is among them, and was looking forward to the challenge.

“If it’s raining or difficult conditions, you have to be much more prepared,” he said. “If you go full throttle to the corner, you’ll spin.”

Reigning F1 drivers’ champion and 2007 Australian GP winner Kimi Raikkonen said the impact of the ban will be seen most clearly in race starts, where drivers must judge their level of acceleration.

“There’s much more chance to lose places now,” he said.

“Before it was more or less automatic. You had a good start and not so good but it was always very close.

“Now if you make a mistake you are going to be very slow off the grid. When it is wet conditions it is quite tricky.” — AP

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