Driver Series or Technology Series - the future of F1

[Nicholosophy]

From this thread... (thought it would be worthy of it's own thread rather than hijacking the other one)

Originally Posted by Teretonga

F1's 'golden era' has passed and without a reversion to a formula that puts the emphsis back on the driver we will not see such an age again. As long as F1 remains as a 'technology' based formula the driver will be secondary to the engineering.

F1 for many years has been considered the 'pinnacle' of motorsport. The best drivers in the best cars with the latest and greatest technology combating against each other to see who came out on top.

F1 was once full of innovations - we saw six wheeled cars, the fan cars and some other really 'out there' technologies. Then there was ground effects, active suspension, ABS and traction control - with these technologies making the transition to road cars. These days the technologies in use aren't so tangiable, for lack of a better word.

It would be fair to say that there have been 'pay drivers' in F1 from the beginning. In the 50s the rich ran their own cars, and this has progressed to where the rich (or sponsored) now buy rides in other cars. New teams sprang up all the time but now there's only going to be 12 and that's that.

However the best drivers still (largely) come to F1 and reach the top. TGF, Mika and Alfonso have won WCs during the the recent history of F1 and it would be fair to say that they are all top line drivers.

Teretonga makes the point that F1 is currently a technology series and that the best drivers in poor machinery cannot overcome that, whereas in the past there was some ability for a top driver to drag a dog of a car home. Is this because we've reached the ceiling point for technology in F1? Have we reached a point where we should say "lets have standard cars and let the drivers duke it out as there is no gain from advances in technology now"?

My personal opinion is that I like the balance of man and machine. The drivers should be important but so is the overall team package. There is scope for new technologies to come along and revolutionise the racing world and car manufacturing. But with the commercialism of the sport it could be said that it is too risky for massive 'leap of faith' technologies to be even tried. Add in the risk of massive lawsuits in our litigation-centric society and it throws up more problems.

I have two questions for all you ten-tenthers. Which direction do you hope/want/would like F1 to go over the next 10 years. Secondly, do you think this will happen, and if not, what do you actually invisage?

I ask in advance that as this discussion unfolds that you take in what is said and don't immediately attack. Take it at its face value - a discussion between motorsport fans who just want to see F1 be the best it can be. Variety is the spice of life.