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Brawn: Monaco may be incident-filled

Honda Racing team principal Ross Brawn believes the absence of traction control could make this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix more incident-filled than normal

The move to a standard ECU in Formula One this year resulted in the removal of electronic driver aids like traction control and engine braking.

And although the racing has not been dramatically affected by their absence, Brawn believes the lack of assistance is showing up most on low-grip surfaces - as will be experienced in Monaco.

And with a spate of spins over the last race weekend in Turkey, where low track temperatures for the type of tyre compound available led to a lack of grip, Brawn thinks that more of the same will be expected this time out.

"I see the drivers have adapted fairly quickly to no traction control, and Turkey was probably the first race weekend where we have seen quite a lot of action in that respect," said Brawn.

"You see a few spins here and there where you know traction control would have prevented them. You see the car gets to a certain point where you know traction control would have not allowed it to get that far. If that happens at Monaco then you will be in big trouble so there may well be an issue.

"But saying that, I don't remember the shunts going down dramatically when we had traction control, so perhaps they will not go back up again when we lose it."

When it was pointed out that it would be harder for drivers to adapt to life without traction control than with it, Brawn said: "I am probably going to put my foot in it, but our drivers seem to have adapted quite well."

Brawn also believes that the lack of engine braking will be just as significant, especially with the bump track surface making the braking areas particularly tricky.

"I think engine braking has been as significant as traction control in terms of laptime," he added. "Of course Monaco is a track where you are more acutely sensitive to both.

"With a dynamic engine braking system that we had, they were quite useful and I think the regulation change has lost as much with that as with traction control, so it will be a factor."

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