Formula One - Just Get Rid Of The Damn Rules!

For the last few years, my favourite sport, Formula One Motor Racing, seems to have been embroiled in two disparate battles. One to reduce costs for all the teams, and the other to make overtaking easier to make the sport more exciting. The latter has become a problem as aerodynamics have become ever more sophisticated, meaning the air behind a car is so disturbed that anyone following closely loses all the effect of their own wings.

The solution the authorities have come up with is to create and enforce ever more complicated rules and regulations, which specify very clearly almost every detail of a car's construction. I'm not kidding when I tell you the F1 rule book stretches to several volumes and requires at the very least an engineering degree to understand.

Sadly, in my humble opinion, all these rules and regulations have had the opposite effect to that intended. The cars are simply too similar in their design, and when you factor in that engines are now "locked" at a pre set power output, nobody can obtain enough of a competitive advantage among the top teams to actually overtake another car! And because the engineers are having to try to achieve tiny increments within very tightly bound regulations, costs are actually even higher.

Another side effect of all this is that several teams have wasted plenty of energy either trying to bend the rules, or arguing that someone else has already done so, and as a result we've had several Grands Prix in recent years decided in the courts.

The final problem with all of these rules is that it has stifled innovation. Remember Chapman's "Ground effect" cars? What about Tyrell's six wheeler? Honestly, take the paint off any of the cars now and you'd be hard pressed to know who they belonged to.

And so many race track inventions have made their way to road cars - disc brakes, active suspension and wings to name just three - but nothing of any value has come out in recent years, unless you count the preponderance for adding yet more buttons to steering wheels.

My Solution

Is simple.

Get rid of the rules!

Let's go back to the days when the formula simply had an engine size limit, and then tightly cap each team's budget. Don't limit wing sizes, wheelbase or anything else.

Let some of the incredibly talented engineers in F1 have their head (sorry Patrick) and come up with ingenious solutions, with new ways to solve old problems. That's how we'll see overtaking, because people will go down different routes. One team may come up with some amazing new aero solution that provides incredible cornering force at the expense of drag, so they will pass others on the bends, and then they will be overtaken on the straights.

We could see anything - four wheel drive, hover cars, new gearbox solutions (CVT anyone?) - teams could start each season with a blank sheet of paper.

And once again Formula One would genuinely be at the bleeding edge of technology, it would be contributing to the road car world, and we'd be enjoying the spectacle of overtaking on a Sunday.

What are your thoughts?

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