Microsoft McLaren Electronics SystemI have been doing a lot more reading about the new rules forcing teams to go back to standard electronics or ECU.  Whatever you wish to call it, since recent testing, it’s been brewing up a storm for months now.

So far the majority of the complaints revolve around the fact that the new engine management system, Microsoft McLaren Electronic Systems (MES) is a collaboration that involves McLaren so we can already see where this is going. 

Clear opposition has come from Renault when Renault Technical Director Bob Bell went on record with these remarks:

“It is ‘obvious’ that teams with prior knowledge of the McLaren ECU will have an advantage in 2008, primarily because adapting to the system ‘involved a huge amount of work.”

“All this extra work meant that resources were allocated to an area other than performance.”

“It’s as if we had to talk to the car in a new language with a new philosophy.”

“The system has lower performance”.  “Its capacity, complexity and functions are not on the same level.”

Renault chief designer Tim Densham say that  McLaren is the only team in the paddock that does not need to commit vast resources to adapting to the new standard ECU.

“Let’s just say that for me this ECU has a very strange shape, a triangular one, so it was clearly designed for a specific car last season.”
“It’s the same thing for the power box that goes with it.  The position and the angle of the connectors are proof of a bespoke design for another car.”

From a drivers perspective, Felipe Massa has so far had a hard time with the new system at his recent testing sessions.  His concern is safety and that the new system is a step backwards for Formula 1.  Massa predicts:

“In wet races we will have a lot more accidents.”

BMW Sauber’s Mario Theissen has also added his concerns about the system.

Essentially what the Microsoft McLaren Electronic Systems (MES) is intended to do is:

Help teams reduce costs

Widen competition along the grid

Prevent illegal driver aids

Boost car efficiency

Getting standard ECU implemented has been a painful process, but Max Mosely did succeed when he convinced the teams that this is what the fans want.  A survey proved fans want competition and fans want every race to be a drivers race and not a race between manufacturers’ electronics.  Widening competition and the elimination of driver aids are two steps to satisfy fans.  From a team perspective, reducing costs and boosting car efficiency should be steps to satisfy them and of course Max himself.

However, more complaints will surely pour in over the coming months and once again the focus will be that McLaren will have an advantage, but  I don’t see that.  The recent unauthorized use of team data proves this to me.  We know that for years team technical data has been passed around and eaten up like snacks at a party, so why now would it be so difficult to incorporate a system given legally.  By the start of the 2008 season, all teams will have succeeded in adapting the MES to their cars and visa versa.

What is your opinion of the new standard ECU?

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