Back to ‘normal’ life then, and weblog postings will be a mite less glamourous from now on I suppose. Settling down to watch the French Grand Prix at a reasonable time was nice for a change. The last few races I’ve seen whilst in New Zealand and Australia, and midnight really isn’t the best time to be settling down for a two hour race. My enthusiasm was maintained for much of the race, until the inevitable happened and Schumacher took the lead in what was a clever piece of strategy work by the Ferrari team. However, the overall feel for this season is quite clearly that of a Ferrari dominated one, and as a fan of 15+ years, it’s really starting to get a little tiring.
It strikes me as frustrating that despite the regulation changes that the powers that be tried, nothing much has really changed. It’s not helped by the waning of Williams and McLaren teams this year, and BAR have helped a little with occasionally exciting racing. But it’s still Ferrari, Ferrari, Ferrari. And, I’m not a Ferrari fan.
So the issue seems to me to be what needs to be done to open things up, without ruining the technical innovation that makes F1 so special. I very much enjoy seeing the developments, and reading about them in the press and via the exceptional ITV coverage, and taking the technological innovation away from teams to limit their speed seems counter-productive.
Changing the rules hasn’t worked, beyond the first few races of 2003. As soon as the drivers worked out the new tactics, it settled back to Ferrari, Ferrari, Ferrari.
So, I thought perhaps the thing to change is maybe the secrecy that surrounds F1. As soon as a driver changes teams, they are almost immediately excluded from the developments that the team are working on for the next year. My idea is simple. At the end of each season, each and every team opens up the technical design, specification and - most importantly - test/safety details, to the other teams. As a result, teams that are struggling to find R&D budget to match Ferrari can benefit from ideas, specifications and systems they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.
The advantage in continual development is still there for teams. They’ll still be a year or more ahead of their rivals, but principles and ideas become more open. Secrecy is reduced, and other teams can climb back up and offer a challenge to the ensconced leaders. Clearly, engine cost is still a major factor, and the ideas that have been mooted for a more standard engine format, thereby reducing the cost associated with engine development, are sound.
But I still think reducing the secrecy by opening up technical designs will facilitate - over time - a more open and competitive Formula 1 - which has got to be good for the sport as a whole.
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July 5th, 2004 at 5:50 pm
Hmm, interesting suggestion, Richard. However, I would think that this would be problematic in terms on intellectual property rights. I assume that Mercedes-Benz is utilizing certain proprietary technology in F1 which they would also like to keep proprietary for later use in their commercial vehicles. That possibility would be in jeopardy with your proposal, I would assume.
Of course, I am nowhere near an expert on any of these issues.