dans79 wrote: ↑26 Aug 2020, 14:51
DChemTech wrote: ↑26 Aug 2020, 10:19
F1 should be an 'innovation sport', but then teams should actually compete on who can do the best innovation job with similar resources - not on who can just throw most money on track.
IMo, that's only works in the theoretical world the FIA spends to much time in. Innovation is usually driven by the highly skilled, and experienced free thinkers. Those types of people want to get paid, and if the f1 teams can't continue to pay for them, then they will leave for other series or industry.
Sure, those people want to get paid. But if you allow the budget to be set freely, then the simple consequence is that the best people go to the biggest teams, with the most resources, who subsequently develop the best material - making them capable of attracting even better people, sponsors, etcetera. The spiral of dominance becomes inevitable. Nice for the teams on top, not for the fans in general.
Also, the result is not strictly speaking a reflection of who
has the best engineers, it is a competition of who has the most money, and as a consequence thereof, can
attract the best engineers (or test most design variants, have the best wind-tunnel, and so on). If you want to test who has the best engineers, you give each engineering team the same resources (time and money), and see who comes up with the best solution within those constraints. The free thinkers that are in it for the challenge will stay. Those that are in it for the money will leave, and honestly, good riddance.