[chernaudi]

And I'm trying to talk about how we got here. If you just want me to say that I don't like the fuel flow meters and why I don't like them, I'll do that, and, actually, have done that.

Now, to your point and my counter-point. If they were to ensure closer competition between engine types, I have to ask why that hasn't happened, and why everyone gravitated to a similar solution? Stating out, we had a 4 liter V6 turbo diesel, a 2 liter turbo V4, and a 3.7 liter NA V8. Now, we have a 2 liter V4 turbo, a 2.4 liter V6, had another 2.4 liter V6, had a 3.0 V6, and even Audi were looking into running a forced induction gasoline engine again.

Everyone is running 6 cylinders or less, small displacement forced induction engines. Obviously, there's a bias in favor of such engines. Not really the variety that you suggest that the flow meters were supposed to encourage through balancing different engine types. Mind you, the LMP900 and LMP1 rules have long favored forced induction engines. But we had a better variety anyways before the present era.

Also, the flow meters have done little, if anything, to address the balance between factory and privateer. Let me remind you of Fuji in 2016. For the brief amount of time that a hybridless Audi was going around the track, it was still out-running the Rebellions and the Kolles cars by a good couple of seconds a lap. That's another point I'm making when arguing against the flow meters.

Granted, the point of them was to encourage fuel saving strategies and to try and balance different engine concepts as far as power. In my honest opinion, they failed in the latter goal.

The LMP1 aero regs and the factory teams having better cars and chassis plays a part, but could it still be argued that they have better engines, even with the flow meters? I don't see how the engine balance was made any better by the presence of the fuel flow meters.

Maybe if everything was down to the engine, I can see that working. But nevertheless a preferred solution was gravitated towards anyways. And it's not just a simple as in IMSA where we can point to the Riley chassis being a dog as to why VFR has done so bad all season. Or that one's engine is solely the problem for their struggles.

Granted, I'm also not a big fan of teams drifting to the same solutions, especially when the rules are supposed to at least in theory balance things out, be it EOT or BOP.