Quote:
Originally Posted by mattthompson79
I think your post bears much merit, however the fact we will driving electric (or hydrogen/ something else), is very relevant and central to where F1 will need to go. F1 cannot bury its head as at some point in the coming years, traditional fuels will become legally and socially unacceptable as a means to power transport. F1 could now direct itself as a leader in the 21st century.
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I think you've misunderstood what I was saying slightly. Formula One's popularity in the past has been due to the fact that the cars are absolutely nothing like what you see on the road. If F1 went electric to try something new, different and spectacular - fine. If it went electric to be road relevant, it's completely missed the point. Formula One hasn't got a thing to do with transport - it's not about getting from A to B, is about getting from A to A as quickly as possible by any means possible.
Formula One should be about excess - excessive speed, glamour, technology, money. That is what makes the drivers appear super-human, and what makes the sport other-worldly. Nobody turns up on the spectator bankings to watch reminders of what they drive on the road, or else they'd be at a WTCC or WEC race - like all major world sports, it's about escaping reality and forgetting whatever's been bothering you for the rest of the week or month.
Motor racing in many quarters
has to be road relevant, but we have rallying, touring cars and sports cars for that. Formula One should be about development for the sake of it - let the rest of motor sport have larger slice of the coverage cake from the media, and let F1 concentrate on being the pinnacle of excess and exclusivity, no matter what the cars are running on. It's not F1's job to fly the flag of alternative fuels as a means of getting from A to B.
The cars at Le Mans are called 'prototypes' for a reason...