Driver aids are banned in F1 to maximise the importance of driver skill. There are no anti-lock brakes or traction control. To maintain the integrity of this rule, F1 car electronics are heavily regulated.

The ECU is a sealed unit made by a single supplier. It has a finite number of sensor inputs and can only use relatively simple algorithms to control the power output. Mechanics can pre-program throttle curves for a particular track, drivers can tweak the throttle mapping mid-lap using their steering wheel controls, but the ECU can't do anything that could be regarded as "intelligent".