A blow-engine button

[freud]

We keep hearing from many people about possibility of 'blow-up engine' buttons on drivers cars these days so that teams can control the point situation.

My question to all technical gurus here. Is this a possibilty... E.g. Can Ferrari give control of such a button to Ross Brawn's hands so that he can blow up Ruben's engine (just in case Michael's win is needed).

Thanks

[alfasud]

But why would you want to????

Even if you really think Ferrari would use remote control to slow Ruben's engine to ensure MS wins, you have to remember that Ferrai also wants to win the constructors championship. Of course there are ways to mistune an engine so badly it detonates, but it makes no sense - why not mistune it so it is still good enough for some points.

Is it possible.... well of course, if you can have a remote control spy plane in a war zone, making some engine changes to a car by remote control is not so hard.

[freud]

Actually I was just wondering about the 'possibility'. I know that probably such devices dont exist.

[Adam43]

It is possible. Just make it rev too high. Or find a a more subtle way. Make it operate outside one of it's many parameters. Apparently nowadays these engines want to blow up! They need the computer to keep them within very narrow operation parameter ranges.

I would imagine that if a team was going to do this, they would do it in nice way. Not one that caused the back wheels to suddenly lock and induce a spin. (Like Panis in Austria). Causing someones engine to blow is very dangerous. Imagine if someone got hurt while doing it...

I have to just say: Why do it? Just ask Rubens to pull over.

But a possibility, yes. It's really easy. But only from this year because pit-car communication has been legalised.

[boyracer]

All the latest cars in the f1 championship are fly by wire, the pits can read everything about the car and tell what is happening to it.
Before rules got very strict one F1 driver said he never knew how the car was going to react first corner as the team mechanic could alter all the engine settings, from the pit. I belive this is the case this year. It is indeed quite possible that if Reuben had not let Scumacher
go past him, the Ferrari team could have de-tuned the engine to allow it. They would not want to 'blow' the engine up as the drivers championship is important, the real goal for the teams is the constructors championship. But in specific terms the answer to your question is YES.

[Adam43]

They certainly could do al the things you say boyracer. Indeed pit-to-car communication was allowed then banned (when people realised you could do it?) and now allowed again.

Fly-by-wire does not refer to this though (as you probably know). Fly by wire is where a control by the driver is connected to the thing it is controlling by electronics rather than a mechanical link.

For example on a (old) road car the throttle pedal is mechanically linked directly to the throttle on the engine. In an F1 car the throttle pedal is connected to a potentiometer, which is the connected (by a wire) to the computer which then decides how mush to open the throttle.

In a simple case the computer can decide that the throttle won't act linearly and in more complicated cases the throttle position can be compared to other parameters (or ignored completely) to produce traction control.

[RWC]

These buttons only exist in either the hand of mad morosely or ernie becelstink.They fight over who gets to press the button on any particular race weekend!!This is too much power in the hands of (non elected)individuals!!!!!
We should ALL get to vote on who's car dies this w/end.