The future of F1

Can you see the way the wind is blowing?

Historically, there have been seven main performance differentiators in Formula One: engines, chassis, tyres, aerodynamics, set-ups, drivers and strategy. The engines have been homogenised by regulation in the past decade; chassis construction was eliminated as a performance variable by the 1990s; we now have a control tyre formula; and whether by chance or design, the powers-that-be have realised that tyres with negative load-response coefficients can be used to negate, or at least attenuate the benefit of aerodynamic downforce.

That's a piece of knowledge which cannot be un-discovered. The financial structure of Formula One dictates the need to maintain high television viewing figures; this requires close competition, which in turn entails the need to eliminate performance differentiators between the cars. It seems likely, then, that the future of Formula One is a future in which engineering design becomes increasingly irrelevant.

As a sport, if the only performance differentiators are set-ups, drivers, and team strategy, then it could be argued that this is a welcome development.

Other people, however, may wish to start a new formula: a championship for single-seater open-wheeled cars, racing on traditional closed circuits, in which the regulations are as open as the current hillclimb regulations; a championship in which there are no television deals, no revenue streams, no marketing executives, no big corporations; a championship in which engineers can let their imaginations run free without constraint; a championship in which drivers can race on proper circuits rather than go-kart tracks in the desert.