Feature: F1 is a Two-Way Thing

David Coulthard's Monaco victory could so easily have disappeared in a puff of smoke last weekend.

The fact that it did not, and that the Scot was able to power to McLaren's first win of 2002, allowed the team to claim a footnote in Formula One history.

Monaco was hailed as the first time that bi-directional telemetry, the electronic wizardry allowed this year to enable a team to change a speeding car's settings from a distance, had been used decisively to win a race.

For a couple of laps, just before the halfway stage, millions of television viewers around the world could see smoke coming from Coulthard's car every time the engine powered through rapid gearchanges.

There would have been groans from McLaren fans, waiting for an engine failure to wreck their man's chances, and excitement among Williams and Ferrari supporters.

"I felt for a few laps as if things were tightening up a little bit," said Coulthard. "I could see some smoke as I was coming out of Casino and I thought this doesn't look good.

"I radioed to say that I thought I was losing a little bit of power," he added. "But the engineers told me...there was no problem. And then it seemed to clear up."

As team boss Ron Dennis said afterwards, the resolution of the problem was nothing to do with luck.

Talking to the Car

"Before the puff of smoke came we actually knew that we had a problem so the smoke wasn't ringing the (alarm) bells," he said. "It was data and we were particularly proud at being able to rectify the problem through our telemetry system.

"I know that not many people get turned on by technology but when you've got it and you use it well, it's a wonderful tool and it's tremendously satisfying to actually be able to talk to the car and influence its performance and rectify that sort of problem.

"It gives you a buzz that we all enjoy."

Engine boffin Mario Ilien, whose Ilmor company builds the Mercedes engines, explained that Coulthard's car had a problem with an oil transfer system, causing a spillage. Last year, that might have been curtains for Coulthard's hopes.

Until this year, cars sent data back to the pits for analysts to scrutinise before the team told the driver by radio what action to take. That was straightforward if distracting for the driver for matters such as saving fuel, but fixing a problem such as Coulthard's while on the move would have been impossible.

This year, the teams can use the systems to tweak the cars directly, allowing the driver to concentrate on keeping away from the barriers and ahead of his rivals. A signal from the pitlane to the car resolved Coulthard's problem without involving the driver.

While the telemetry kept the Scot on the road, more electronic brilliance put him in control of the race from the very first corner. Last year, the Scot started from the back of the grid after his car stalled on the formation lap while on pole position in Monaco.

On Sunday, all that was forgotten as Coulthard rocketed off the front row and took a lead that he would never give up, even though Schumacher's Ferrari was clearly faster.

"The software guys have worked extremely hard and we've made some improvements since the beginning of the season," he said. "In the first few races we were getting beaten off the start and that really made us concentrate.

"They've made some big steps forward and they were all confident, based on what happened in Austria, that I would lead into the first corner. All I had to do was take my finger off the button and hope they were right."