Story Here
An interesting view on the use of a floor mounted sequential shifter in contrast to a steering wheel mounted flappy paddle...
You can see the safety aspect... if teams were to take out much of the central tunnel protrusions (requiring relocation of electrics, roll bars, drinks systems and other stuff..) would that mean Larko's original idea of effectively putting a tub inside a sedan car may be closer than we think?
You can see the safety merits here too quite easily...
And the cost reduction on engines and transmissions as the automated electronic shift is kinder on upchange and downchange (with throttle blipper?) with precise micro cuts to acceleration than a pilot flat shifting and banging through the gears up or down without a clutch... who might be taking some other aspect of sub optimal car performance out on the poor old box...