ScottB wrote: ↑04 Mar 2024, 12:24
He might be confident of closing the gap, but presumably, the issue under the way the cap / resource restriction works, Ferrari and others use it up chasing in season updates to close that gap, meanwhile RBR do one update then spend the rest of the year on their next rocket ship...
Definitely don't want BOP, but perhaps revisiting the resource restriction to factor in dominance, gap between the positions etc to try and reign in a team that is very far ahead. F1 claims to want that with it's current setup (Brawn was saying a dominant team would be pulled back ahead of these new rules coming in etc), but it's clear it isn't working, and it's just as likely the same thing happens again in 2026, whether it's still RBR or someone else.
Or abandon that position and accept F1 has spells of dominance, but at the moment the message / ethos and the reality do not sync up.
The cost cap obviously has a control in many respect, but in technical sphere of pure design it's a significantly blunt and cumbersome means of control.
A very good technical idea can cost exactly the same as a very poor one, the difference only seen when it's brought to fulfilment on track.
This is really a best of minds, experience, judgment, compromise and evaluation battle, which will often be won by the most coherence in focus on brutal analysis in outcome.
The supreme conductor, with capable orchestra, can really be seen and especially with some level of parity in spending.
Brawn view of bringing parity is true .... for advancing the average .... seen in how close lap times are across the field. It will never account for truly individual thinking though, in any field of development. It seeks to hold back, not advance. Individual thinking in truest form is never about making something average.