Sebasitian Vettel’s stunning win in Singapore: Traction-Control-gate?

With the domination of Sebastian Vettel at the recently concluded SingTel Singapore GP, there were a few individuals who were questioning the Red Bull RB9’s performance. Giancarlo Minardi, former team owner of Minardi F1 team, in a recent interview mentioned that while watching Sebastian in Singapore from his suite, he began to wonder why Vettel was leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else. Even his red bull team mate Mark Webber, who was supposedly in an identical car, was nowhere to be seen.

Minardi in his column in pitpass wrote, “From my suite, I chose some mainstays as a reference point in order to monitor and compare the drivers’ way of driving. I was impressed by Vettel’s neat way of driving on that stretch of the track. He was able to drive all that stretch without making any corrections, unlike all his rivals (also his team-mate). On the same stretch, Sebastian was able to [accelerate] 50 meters before any other driver, Webber included. The thing that surprised me the most was the engine’s output sound. Besides speeding up 50 meters before any other driver, the Renault engine of the German’s car grinded like no other French engines on track, neither like Mark’s. That sound was similar to the sound made by the engine when the traction control system got into action in the past seasons.”

Tracation Control (TC) has been banned since 2008, and according to the 2013 F1 Technical Regulations, Section 9.3: “No car may be equipped with a system or device which is capable of preventing the driven wheels from spinning under power or of compensating for excessive torque demand by the driver.  Any device or system which notifies the driver of the onset of wheel spin is not permitted.”

So how would one know if traction control is indeed being used in an F1 car you ask?

Traction Control is done by “tweaking”  the engine map to manipulate torque and could be used to have partial firing of the cylinders, allowing the car to have maximum traction without spinning the wheels. With traction control, the driver just keeps his right foot down and the electronic control unit (ECU) will regulate the amount of fuel going to the engine to limit power applied to the wheels. As the cars corner, this makes a very noticeable “crackling sound.” Watch the video and notice that with the exception of Sebastian’s Red Bull, all cars in the video drove by with hardly a pop on their engine.

Of course, this is all speculation and as Mr. Minardi mentioned, the FIA should scrutinize both RB9’s.

For the sake of the sport, there should be a statement from the FIA confirming or refuting the traction control issue. Don’t get me wrong: Sebastian is a fantastic driver, and deserves his place in the record book. But one could also be allowed to wonder how he can be that far ahead of the rest of the field. He was just that unstoppable in Singapore.