Motorsport News International
F1: Engine management software FIA press release
tomh@metrics.com (Tom Haapanen)
PRESS RELEASE FROM THE
FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE L'AUTOMOBILE (FIA)
The following information was sent to all Formula One Team Principals
and Technical Directors by the FIA Formula One Technical Delegate,
Charlie Whiting on 27 July 1994:
FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Article 2.6 Formula One Technical Regulations
On 26 July 1994, the FlA World Motor Sport Council unanimously
decided as follows:
1. Before the German Grand Prix, we will require each team to state
whether or not the computer systems fitted to its cars contain any
feature which might infringe the current technical or sporting
regulations including, but not limited to, traction control,
automatic start systems and power modification systems of the kind
described in our note of 20 April 1994.
2. If your computer systems do contain such features but they have
been disabled, we shall require precise details of each such system
and the steps which have been taken to disable it. If you are in
any doubt as to whether any of your systems might breach the
regulations, you must declare them and provide details so that we
can give a ruling. Following the Belgian Grand Prix, all such
features must be eliminated from the computer systems on your cars.
If, at the Italian or subsequent grands prix, we find such a system
in one of your cars, we shall assume it is there to be used and
the Stewards or the FIA will act accordingly.
3. You will also be required to show that no such features are
loaded into volatile memory that can be erased before any components
are examined.
4. If we decide to investigate the electronic systems in your car,
we shall require you to provide us with all source codes, as well
as with such other information about your systems as our experts
may feel is necessary. We shall also require source codes to all
communications programs, including those of external equipment
connected to the car on the start grid, to be made available. Source
codes and other information must be made available in a form and
to a schedule specified by us. Teams will also have to make available
for use by FlA investigators all the compilers and linkage programs
and program libraries that are needed to build the machine code
program that are equivalent to the source code presented.
5. We may need access to source codes and programs for several
days. We reserve the right either to examine them in independent
laboratories or, if you so request, in such conditions on your
premises as we may specify. Requests for codes, programs and other
information must be complied with immediately and prior to the next
Event.
If we undertake a second or subsequent investigation into a particular
team's computer systems, then the source code of the previous
investigation must be available for comparison.
In order to make our investigations easier and quicker, we will require
each team to implement the following no later than the Hungarian Grand
Prix:
i) The software loaded onto the computer systems must have an upload
capability. This will enable reading of the contents of the computer
units in a non-destructive manner.
ii) The software loaded onto the computer systems and the communications
software must have a unique version number or numbers that can be shown
to correspond to the source code.
Information acquired by the FIA, its employees, agents, officers or
members in connection with the enforcement of the Formula One Technical
Regulations will be treated as confidential and will not be revealed to
any third party except insofar as may be necessary to enable the FIA to
satisfy itself that such Regulations have been observed or to decide on
any penalty if not so satisfied. The FIA will procure that any third
party to whom such information may be revealed will also treat such
information as confidential.
The only outside agency which will be given access to the information
referred to above is LDRA Ltd.: The information handled by this company
on behalf of the its clients involves high value confidential and
sensitive computer software. Teams can have complete confidence that
their source codes will be safe.
All information courtesy of MNI - Motorsport News International
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