F1 has been useing fully automatic gearboxes since barcalona 2001. not automatics as in like your mom's minivan, but as in electro-hydraulicaly controlled sequential gearboxes, like on the new M3s and ferrrari road cars.
They are going to regulate not having TC and LC and suck by going to a sealed, standard control ECU in 2004, but for 2003, it will be like the old days where there will be no real enforcement. The only way for them to know if a team is useing TC is for them to impound the ECU and search the programming to see if it is present. prior to 2001 though, ferrari had developed a program that allowed them to have traction control hidden in the code, and completely erase itself after the race was completed.
a big part of the enforcement will be that the cars will basicly be in parc ferme between the last session on saturday, and the race on sunday, meaning that the teams will only be able to work on them in a very controlled mannor, so idealy, whatever is loaded in the ECU for qualifying, and scrutineering sunday morning, will be loaded for the race, nothing more, nothing less.
as far as thinking this is going to level the playing field...no way. Ferrari will simply spend the money it would have spent developing electronics on something else, and if anything, ferrari will have more money then anyone else to develop the car around the rule changes, and will only get better.