Quote:
Originally Posted by bella
you do have to protect jobs though, and to impose such a strict set of regulations on f1 would be the equivalent of making a very very significant percentage of the workforce unemployed.
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What!
F1 teams have agreed in principle to reduce budgets somewhat to more reasonable levels than the $200+ million some teams and automative firms were spending on F1, especially in areas where the research and development was unproductive in any field other than F1 and you are telling me the firms and the FIA have a responsibility to continue with the present regulations in order to protect peoples jobs?
I am all for full employment for everyone but running wind tunnels 24/7 with a cadre of personnel just to make f1 cars go 3/100 of a second faster around a 5km strip of tarmacadam is a wasteful use of resources, both human, engineering and in terms of wasteful energy consumption. All for no real useful purpose.
The reality is if F1 is primarily entertainment, also a sport, an exhibition of skill (and not just bravery), and an engineering exercise with some practical everyday outcomes of relevance that can be applied to the real world of automative engineering, then some significant and useful revisions can and should be made.
The present regulations divert an inappropriate amount of researcha nd development into aerodynamic solutions, development and research that have little proctical application outside of F1.
The skills, intelligence and creativity of those human resources would be better employed in developing technologies involving mechanical grip, reduced fuel consumption, alternative forms of enrgy cuse and consumption, human safety design and development, etc.
Restrictions on the use of wings, or implementing a standard wing package for all teams, along with restrictions on the design and shape of underbodies, floors and how much floor etc can be employed around the rear of the car (I'd eliminate much of it) could give us significantly improved 'racing' and eliminate much of the wasteful spending from F1 by diverting it to engineering tasks with more practical outcomes for road car engineering.
While employment is important as a social issue it shouldn't cloud judgement on what is best for the sport and for engineering outcomes or lock companies and the FIA into a position where it becomes a governing factor in the development of the sport.
Thatys a response to what could be a serious comment. If however bella has given us a cyncial comment than we should all have a laugh about it.......
