By Lemmy Gibson
Formula One is often touted as the cutting edge of motor sports because of the incredibly technology and, frankly, money spent in developing it. That being said, one has to suggest F1 is losing a bit of its luster.
NASCAR used to be a bit more exciting to me for one reason. You could tell the makes and models of the car apart. A Pontiac looked like a Pontiac. A Chevrolet looked like a Chevrolet. Then someone got the bright idea to save money and make the races fairer by creating a single template the cars all had to use. It saved no money and didn't make anything fairer, but it did take away some of the individuality of the sport. In short, it was a development for the worse and Formula One seems to be following the same path.
The economic crisis is causing Formula One teams to band together to cut costs. That is a noble and, frankly, necessary goal. That being said, the teams are eliminating a lot of areas of development on the car, which means innovation is really going out the window in many ways. One needs only look at the hideous 2009 cars to notice something rather interesting and scary - they are starting to look like Indy Cars.
Open wheel racing in the United States has obviously gone through a rough period. Guns in each hand, it proceeded to shoot itself in the feet repeatedly during the split between the Indy Racing League and Cart/Champ/Whatever. It wiped open wheel racing off the map and, but for Danica Patrick, none of us would really care much about the sport. The IRL "won" the war and the sport is finally united again, but the teams have barely developed a car in fifteen years or so because money has been so tight.
Formula One is in danger of going down this path as well. Legendary designer Adrian Newey is threatening to leave the sport if the trend continues. No less than Sir Frank Williams has also warned the championship is losing its soul to the cost cutting measure. The interesting thing about Williams' warning is he is a privateer who would benefit greatly by more standardization of the sport since his modest budget would go farther. Williams has always been a wise voice in the crowd, so perhaps his statements should not be such a surprise.
The approach being taken to standardizing the cars in Formula One is wrong through and through. The idea of cutting costs makes ultimate sense, but not in the way the FIA is approaching it. Instead of standardizing certain areas of the car, the teams should be allowed to spend any amount on whatever they wish on the car. If that amount is over some stated amount, the team will be "fined" the excessive amount and the money will go to the privateer teams who must spend it on car development.
This creates a soft cap for the sport while helping the privateers stay and prosper. If Ferrari wants to spend $400 million on their car, let them. Just make them kick in $100 million to be split between Force India, Williams and so on. This will make the sport competitive, keep the teams alive and let cost cutting reach a natural plateau.
More importantly, this will let the technical innovation remain a part of Formula One. Since that is what makes the sport stand out, it makes little sense to kill innovation off with unnecessary rules and regulations.
Formula One is often touted as the cutting edge of motor sports because of the incredibly technology and, frankly, money spent in developing it. That being said, one has to suggest F1 is losing a bit of its luster.
NASCAR used to be a bit more exciting to me for one reason. You could tell the makes and models of the car apart. A Pontiac looked like a Pontiac. A Chevrolet looked like a Chevrolet. Then someone got the bright idea to save money and make the races fairer by creating a single template the cars all had to use. It saved no money and didn't make anything fairer, but it did take away some of the individuality of the sport. In short, it was a development for the worse and Formula One seems to be following the same path.
The economic crisis is causing Formula One teams to band together to cut costs. That is a noble and, frankly, necessary goal. That being said, the teams are eliminating a lot of areas of development on the car, which means innovation is really going out the window in many ways. One needs only look at the hideous 2009 cars to notice something rather interesting and scary - they are starting to look like Indy Cars.
Open wheel racing in the United States has obviously gone through a rough period. Guns in each hand, it proceeded to shoot itself in the feet repeatedly during the split between the Indy Racing League and Cart/Champ/Whatever. It wiped open wheel racing off the map and, but for Danica Patrick, none of us would really care much about the sport. The IRL "won" the war and the sport is finally united again, but the teams have barely developed a car in fifteen years or so because money has been so tight.
Formula One is in danger of going down this path as well. Legendary designer Adrian Newey is threatening to leave the sport if the trend continues. No less than Sir Frank Williams has also warned the championship is losing its soul to the cost cutting measure. The interesting thing about Williams' warning is he is a privateer who would benefit greatly by more standardization of the sport since his modest budget would go farther. Williams has always been a wise voice in the crowd, so perhaps his statements should not be such a surprise.
The approach being taken to standardizing the cars in Formula One is wrong through and through. The idea of cutting costs makes ultimate sense, but not in the way the FIA is approaching it. Instead of standardizing certain areas of the car, the teams should be allowed to spend any amount on whatever they wish on the car. If that amount is over some stated amount, the team will be "fined" the excessive amount and the money will go to the privateer teams who must spend it on car development.
This creates a soft cap for the sport while helping the privateers stay and prosper. If Ferrari wants to spend $400 million on their car, let them. Just make them kick in $100 million to be split between Force India, Williams and so on. This will make the sport competitive, keep the teams alive and let cost cutting reach a natural plateau.
More importantly, this will let the technical innovation remain a part of Formula One. Since that is what makes the sport stand out, it makes little sense to kill innovation off with unnecessary rules and regulations.
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