The power of bi-directional communication telemetry was demonstrated during the Monaco GP weekend when McLaren altered settings on David Coulthard’s car that stopped his engine from smoking and enabled him to continue on to take victory.

Bi-directional telemetry was allowed back in the sport this season after an absence of eight years. It enables teams to alter settings on the governing ECU or black box by radio signal.

Smoke began to emanate from Coulthard's McLaren in the latter stages of the race whilst leading Ferrari's Michael Schumacher.

It was found that a transfer tank that distributes oil between the banks of cylinders on the Mercedes V10 had developed a problem and was causing the smoky emission. Engineers deduced that the engine would not be significantly affected if the tank stopped functioning, and so they turned it off remotely.

‘Before the puff of smoke came we actually knew that we had a problem so the smoke wasn't ringing alarm bells,’ Team Principal Ron Dennis explained.

‘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.’