Thoughts on current F1 Regulations

[Nitrodaze]

First, if Red Bull leave the sport, they have Red Bull to blame. You can't just spend your tenure on the sport shitting on everyone else, inclding your engine supplier, whenever things don't go your way and expect any good to come out of it.

I am not so sure anyone would blame Redbull for walking out of the series if they don't see good business sense in staying. The rules as it were, placed a huge pressure on Renault to get out of their deficit in performance once it became clear they had got their design wrong and were down on power relative to Mercedes. But with the constraints of the rules, it was clearly difficult for Renault to find the sort of performance that would make Redbull competitive enough to take the fight to sharp end of the grid.

Under the circumstances, Redbull pay a huge amount of money to Renault to provide engines competitive enough to challenge at the front of the grid. If they are not getting value for money, it is natural that they would be very unhappy about it. After two seasons of no real progression on the power front, you have to be quite daft to not start thinking that there has to be a better way than the current one. Unfortunately the restrictive regulations is the real problem and they could have jointly acknowledged that and try to do something collectively about it.

The reality for Redbull is, the difficulty of the regulations will follow them to their new engine supplier and they would need to have the patience of a saint to get back to competing at the front. Much as Mclaren is testament of. Audi or whoever they get in bed with would need to turn up with an engine that is competitive compared to the Mercedes and Ferrari, plus the engine design must allow scope for development over the following 2 years at least. Now that is a tall order by current standards. Particularly with lack of F1 experience and an engine with no historical data.

The fact of the matter is, it is incredibly tough getting anything new into F1 at the moment due to the overly restrictive nature of the current regulations which places an unfair burden o innovation coupled with an attempt to restrict spending or reduce cost. It is difficult to innovate without spending a great deal of money. It is also impossible to innovate out of an architectural flaw in a design without re-architecting the design. This essentially is where Renault and Honda find themselves, as such stuck between a rock and a hard place as they say.

The current regulation has removed an important competitive strand of F1, the technology race between teams. This is the arena that has produced some of the most amazing innovations in the past. The likes of DRS, energy recovery systems etc l am sure you can name a few of your own. The current regulation has effectively killed off this aspect of F1. Incidentally, this is one of the main aspects of F1 that makes it the premier 4 wheel open cockpit motorsport. It is also the main reason why the competitiveness of teams are frozen where they start their season from; the ugly reality of not being able to innovate themselves out of a rotten start to the season.

The current F1 is not in harmony with its essence, it lack its spiritual balance, it is out of sorts with its heritage. No Feng Shui.