Autoblog

For those who think this is shaping up to be an exciting F1 season, next year should be a stunner. The FIA has confirmed that traction control will not be allowed in 2008. With traction control about to be banned from F1, Formula One Drivers are split on the decision. Most have said they support the move, but most racers will usually say they prefer fewer electronic aids getting in the way of pure mechanical feel and control of the vehicle. At this level of performance, however, the drivers often like to talk a good game and downplay the significance of the devices. It's more driver skill, they'll tell you. But for some of today's drivers, electronics have been fitted to every car they have raced at this level of competition. The aids themselves have been used since 2001.

Follow the jump to see how some of the top drivers feel about this issue.

[Source: PaddockTalk]

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen thinks "It's going to be more fun, although for sure it's going to make it more difficult to drive over the race distance, so it's not going to always be fun."

Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella seemed to echo those sentiments, saying "It's good to make it more difficult for the drivers."

Others, like David Coulthard, however, say we'll only see a difference in wet races: "I think in dry conditions, the driver has an in-built traction control system and that won't change."

Nico Rosberg, of Williams, basically said that traction control is given far too much credit: "I think you still need to control (the car) yourself with the foot occasionally," he said, "so it is not going to make a huge difference."

We probably won't learn the truth until testing for next season begins. In the meantime we're sure to hear stories like those about Super Auguri, that tell us some teams have been without traction control already. Even if it's only in the rain, we hope it makes enough of a difference to justify the change, and add even more excitement to the show.