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For purely competition purposes there may be no need for road relevance.In the Uk at least there is a body of people who dislike all forms of motor vehicle, purportedly because of environmental concerns.It is slightly less difficult to justify the whole endeavour if there are useful spin offs for society by continuing with the activity.It might easily be argued that a weekend of football creates more greenhouse gases,what with thousands of cars streaming scarves along motorways and even amateurs car sharing to play at their local parks.Nobody ever advances that point and so we get Greta Thunberg and her shrill imitators agitating against all forms of internal combustion engines.Not to mention the real hard core mob who glued themselves to the road surface this week to stop vehicles moving and one of the more demented declared that he didn't care if people in ambulances died as a result.These people exist and need to be countered or their voices will sooner or later end motorsport.Developing things that will benefit society is a reasonably compelling justification.
As much as I would like to see 150Kg come off the weight of the cars and maybe 400mm out of the wheelbase,I understand how we arrived at this point.Its what batteries weigh and basic aerodynamics tells us that increasing the area over which downforce acts will increase the load on the tyres and hence the grip.Its a bit unfortunate that we are about to see a new formula when the present version has just matured to the point where we don't expect a Mercedes 1-2 at every race.That led to a level of predictability redolent of the Schumacher years at the beginning of the century.
I don't see the internal combustion element going away soon,but I know there will be a higher proportion of biofuel soon and wouldn't be surprised to see fully synthetic come into play.Maybe hydrogen too and Le Mans may be leading the way in this respect.The FIA and the CRH are well aware of the challenges and may be expected to do their best.The existing teams may need to look beyond their immediate interests if they are to keep the series viable.Less dependency on manufacturers may be a part of it.None of them has a divine right to exist and although the barriers to entry are very high,it doesn't mean they are guaranteed to exist forever as racing teams.A quick look at the list of extinct teams should remind them of that,some distinguished names have left the grid as well as a lot of minnows.Change is the only constant and not all change is welcomed.
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