Most of you will know that during the last week Pirelli have been showing off an 18 inch tyre; the tyre was fitted to the Lotus F1 car driven by Charles Pic during the 3 day test that followed the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. I thought the wheels looked stunning on the Lotus and I am sure many of you will agree. However, I was left wondering as to why Formula 1 feels the need to give it’s cars – which are essentially evolving prototypes – a standard road car look which can be mirrored across many of motorsports GT series. I then thought a bit more and came to this conclusion.
In many ways F1 is now mirroring the “Super Touring” era of regulation which was followed by Touring Car Championships the world over. For this example I am going to focus on the British Touring Car Championship. This series followed the “Super Touring” regulations from 1990 until the demise of ST in the year 2000. A car that was costing £60,000 in 1990 was costing a cool £250,000 by 2000. This just to get the car prepared for racing. It didn’t include drivers, staff or development. A team’s budget needed to run into close to a million pounds to stay competitive.
A series which at it’s height could boast some of the world’s most sought after automotive manufacturers such as Renault – which was operated by the Williams F1 team from 1995 until 2000 – BMW, Ford, Volvo, and Toyota suddenly found itself left with just MG, Vauxhall and Peugeot, all because the manufacturers no longer saw the expense as a viable business.
I said that F1 was now mirroring the 90’s period of BTCC and here’s why. Up and down the F1 paddock teams are teetering on the brink of survival. Let’s start with Caterham. Tony Fernandes came into the sport with big ambitions and money to back it up. While there appears to have been mismanagement with this big budget: £260 million over 2 1/2 years, and 0 points, Fernandes could no longer sustain such high costs with no reward.
We’ll now move on to Sauber. Not long ago the future was looking bright for Sauber: they were consistently quick; had a top 10 car and even achieved several podiums with Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi back in 2012. They then ran into money troubles and with planned investments falling through, they were left with a budget shortfall and bills going unpaid. It’s the same situation at Lotus; budget gaps and bills going unpaid, don’t forget they didn’t pay Kimi Raikkonen his wages in 2013. Moreover, mustn’t forget that Lotus were actually championship contenders in 2013. What has become of both teams now? Back of the pack mediocrity, struggling to finish races, let alone beat the Marussia and Caterham cars. While the financial situation of McLaren isn’t particularly worrying, they haven’t been able to attract a title sponsor for this year after Vodafone departed at the end of last season.
I struggle to see why F1 needs to follow the trends of road car technology. Furthermore, I don’t understand why F1 needs to be the breeding ground for technology to be used in road going vehicles. That should be left to the cars in the various GT series; you only have to look at the success of the LMP1 hybrid powered cars in the World Endurance Championship to see that. Does F1 really need new turbo engines and intricate energy recovery systems or even to fuel usage regulations, all of which have driven the cost up even further? Shouldn’t Formula 1 be about the “aerodynamicists” and who can make their teams cars go faster? I have no issues with development in these areas. After all, this is what F1 has been about for years.
I’ll leave you with this thought: how long will it be before those in charge realise that every change they have made over the last few years has been to the detriment of the sport we love? It’s only a matter of time until we lose one of the major teams to an alternative series, you know the saying: when one goes, the others follow!
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