Zynerji wrote: ↑18 Sep 2019, 16:39
I thought "Formula" just meant an agreed upon set of regulations that define the boundaries of what shall not be allowed.
It's the addition of "must be included" that I find myself on the fence about...
The term 'formula' as applied to racing dates back to when rules were intended to balance cars of different characteristics against each other, and you had sliding scales e.g. a maximum engine capacity for supercharged or normally aspirated engines which varied according to the weight of the car. E.g. the 1938-9 Grand Prix regs, where the sliding scales were quite complex (e.g. if you had a car with a supercharged engine of 666cc it could be down to the minimum weight of 400kg, but if you went for the maximum supercharged capacity of 3,000cc the car had to weigh no less than 850kg, or you could go anywhere in the middle, say 1,800cc and 618kg). Even these were not a true 'formula' - the term comes from yacht racing, with rules like the International Rule, where measurements like length, beam, sail area and displacement were fed into a calculation - literally a mathematical formula - to provide their rating, so the designers could play with different dimensions to try to produce the fastest yacht for any given rating. 'Formula 1' was never a formula series in the true sense of the word, although it did start out with elements of that with the sliding scale of engine capacity and supercharging.
F1 is technically a 'restricted class' - that is, absolute restrictions are placed on various aspects of the car, rather than different characteristics being balanced against each other.
