Just a flight of fancy here, for a bit of fun.
Assume money is not a problem (fantasy), but you wanted to create a new motor racing formula or category that best fits your tastes. What would it look like, what sort of rules would you come up with?
To start with mine. I like driver skill in overtaking, and race strategy in equal measure. I like technological development but it does tend to lead to boring racing if one team completely dominates all the time through having some innovation nobody else has. I know this is meant to reward innovation and all that, but over time it does tend to favour the teams with the biggest budgets in a sort of feedback loop that entrenches certain teams at the top and makes it really hard for new teams to compete. On the other hand completely identical formula racing can be boring too.
So I would like to go somewhere in between the two. I've been thinking about it off an on. Coming up with a way of separating the engineering development from the racing. I'd split them into separate sides of the formula. So my first rule is engineering development teams can't race their own cars, likewise the racing teams can't do any development but need to buy their cars and parts from engineering teams. This would hopefully lead to new advancements finding their way quickly through the field - it would be in the interests of the engineering teams to sell as many of their parts to as many teams as possible.
I would made the cars themselves based on a identical central chassis, with teams having a choice of engines, tyres, front wing and rear wing to assemble their package. Front and rear wing would be of fixed configuration, so some strategy is involved in picking the right one for the right track.
I think I would cap the amount of money each team can spend on the car. Perhaps by introducing a credit system. Teams buy a licence for the year and get a certain number of "Formula Byng Credit Notes" which they spend over the season. Obviously the amount has to last the whole season, so they have to be a bit careful managing the purchase of new engines and new wings and the like.
For tyres, I'd like a choice of several suppliers. Tyres would not be supplied directly to individual teams, but bought in bulk by the league and then distributed to the teams. Teams would have the option at the start of the season of sticking to one make of tyres for a fixed price, or buying tyres at each race through an auction system. I'd make teams use 2 different tyres during a race, but I'd allow each manufacturer to count as a different type. For example an ABC medium compound would count as different to a XYZ medium compound. So if a particular race track favoured a medium tyre the best strategy would be to have a set of mediums from each supplier, but that would have to be at an auction. But if you decided to chose one brand of tyre you'd go the medium and then have to choose between a harder or softer for your second stint. Teams might take the second option to have more money to spend on other parts of the car. So the field ends up with lots of cars on different tyre strategies.
I'd like the car to be open wheelers, somewhere around a Formula 2 spec, maybe a bit higher. The idea is that there would be a multitude of strategies on the starting grid for each race to make it interesting. Also that the cars would be good enough to attract some good talent to drive them.
Assume money is not a problem (fantasy), but you wanted to create a new motor racing formula or category that best fits your tastes. What would it look like, what sort of rules would you come up with?
To start with mine. I like driver skill in overtaking, and race strategy in equal measure. I like technological development but it does tend to lead to boring racing if one team completely dominates all the time through having some innovation nobody else has. I know this is meant to reward innovation and all that, but over time it does tend to favour the teams with the biggest budgets in a sort of feedback loop that entrenches certain teams at the top and makes it really hard for new teams to compete. On the other hand completely identical formula racing can be boring too.
So I would like to go somewhere in between the two. I've been thinking about it off an on. Coming up with a way of separating the engineering development from the racing. I'd split them into separate sides of the formula. So my first rule is engineering development teams can't race their own cars, likewise the racing teams can't do any development but need to buy their cars and parts from engineering teams. This would hopefully lead to new advancements finding their way quickly through the field - it would be in the interests of the engineering teams to sell as many of their parts to as many teams as possible.
I would made the cars themselves based on a identical central chassis, with teams having a choice of engines, tyres, front wing and rear wing to assemble their package. Front and rear wing would be of fixed configuration, so some strategy is involved in picking the right one for the right track.
I think I would cap the amount of money each team can spend on the car. Perhaps by introducing a credit system. Teams buy a licence for the year and get a certain number of "Formula Byng Credit Notes" which they spend over the season. Obviously the amount has to last the whole season, so they have to be a bit careful managing the purchase of new engines and new wings and the like.
For tyres, I'd like a choice of several suppliers. Tyres would not be supplied directly to individual teams, but bought in bulk by the league and then distributed to the teams. Teams would have the option at the start of the season of sticking to one make of tyres for a fixed price, or buying tyres at each race through an auction system. I'd make teams use 2 different tyres during a race, but I'd allow each manufacturer to count as a different type. For example an ABC medium compound would count as different to a XYZ medium compound. So if a particular race track favoured a medium tyre the best strategy would be to have a set of mediums from each supplier, but that would have to be at an auction. But if you decided to chose one brand of tyre you'd go the medium and then have to choose between a harder or softer for your second stint. Teams might take the second option to have more money to spend on other parts of the car. So the field ends up with lots of cars on different tyre strategies.
I'd like the car to be open wheelers, somewhere around a Formula 2 spec, maybe a bit higher. The idea is that there would be a multitude of strategies on the starting grid for each race to make it interesting. Also that the cars would be good enough to attract some good talent to drive them.