F1 has always been a domain for a select few as opposed to a broader field. Tightening up the budgets is near impossible to police. I don't know if you saw what Frank Williams had to say about budget limits in F1. he said --I'm paraphrasing here-- that there should be no budget caps, but that it's up to the teams to be cost-effective in their approaches to fielding a team. Besides, it's already been proven you do not need to spend $500 million for results; all the departed automotive manufacturers proved how stupid that approach was.Jersey Tom wrote:Couldn't disagree more. Varied and interesting solutions are a function of the rule book, not budget. Want to see creative "racecar" engineering? Go to a Formula SAE / Formula Student event. Budget is on the order of $25,000 a year probably, on average, and you'll see as varied and creatively designed cars as you can imagine (not always the BEST ideas but they're certainly varied). Steel frames vs monocoques, aero package vs no aero package, different suspension topologies, different engine displacements and configurations, etc. And they're all capable of winning!SeijaKessen wrote:The more regulated budgets and restrictions are, the less likely we are to see creativity in any form since there is less to work with.
For some time now I've been a proponent of tightening up F1 budgets to make the series more accessible to a broader field, and open up the rule book in areas to encourage a larger variety of engineering approaches. Unlimited KERS, unlimited engine displacement and configuration (cylinders, NA vs FI..) with a fixed quantity of fuel available for a weekend. You'd see some interesting stuff then.
I do agree with you on the need to open up the rule book. No disagreement on that. The lack of an open rule book is what has allowed Le Mans to surpass F1 for any sort of real technological innovation. The gap is only going to get larger since we've already gotten to the point where creative interpretation of the rule book is the only real advantage left. Even at that it's dependent on how the FIA sees it. I would definitely like to see a wider variety of creative approaches in design allowed for, as opposed to a bunch of gimmicks like DRS and garbage tires.
Anyway this is too far off topic now, so I'll leave it at that.
