Driver aid won’t mask talent, says Jordan's Brown

Since plans for a package to re-introduce the banned driver aid were announced at last week's FIA World Motor Sport Council, the rules-making body of world motorsport, there has been outcry from drivers such as Rubens Barrichello and Jordan's own Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

The drivers believe that the device - which helps to reduce wheelspin when accelerating - will detract from the skill of controlling the throttle, enabling less talented drivers to perform better. But Brown, who has been a race engineer to four Formula 1 world champions, disagrees.

"Alain Prost won the championship in 1993 with an active car and ABS and all the rest of it," said the ex-Williams and McLaren man, "but he was the best pedaller around at the time as well. It didn't mean that Joe Bloggs could have jumped in the car and gone as quick as Prost. It still takes the right driver."

Traction control is set to return to F1 as part of a safety package introduced by the FIA and could be back as early as the Spanish Grand Prix in April. Rumours suggest that certain teams have been using the banned driver aid this year and its return is in part due to the difficulty of policing a ban.

"I don't think they [the FIA] can control it anymore," said Brown, "and to have everybody in the pitlane thinking things aren't fair or to have people thinking 'we know you're cheating, but we don't want to say in public' is not correct. It's not good for the competition and it's not good for motor racing.

"It's far better to have rules which allow people the flexibility to do their job while being able to control them, rather than have rules which you can't control, because then everybody's under suspicion."

For full David Brown Q&A, (Click Here).