What kind of a Differential Gear do Formula 1 cars have?
What kind of a Differential Gear do F1 cars use? Is it open or locked?
The differential is a locking differential. A locked differential provides significant traction advantage over an open differential, but only when the traction under each wheel differs significantly.
In Formula 1 cars the locking mechanism is hydraulic lock that can be adjusted electronically - it is has a mapping, just like the engine does. The mappings use different variables such as rotation speed, acceleration pedal value and so forth.
The rules regulate that the lock must not be active - so it can not control itself automatically without human intervention.