- Futuristic F1 design by Antonio Paglia image credit - DriveMag & Antonio Paglia

Where is F1 going?

Where I think F1 is going due to the changes in business, rules and cars.

3y ago
2.3K

Not to long ago I wrote an article on what to expect in the 2018 F1 season and after that I started wondering where was F1 really heading as a sport. Here is where I think its going….

Due to the sport now having American owners, it seems more NASCAR-ish. The driver numbers are bigger on the livery, there is musical entertainment on the rise at some of the events, COTA a year or two ago had a person called Taylor Swift, Singapore last year had Ariana Grande (whoever they are)…..I remember the 1st time I went to a race - the cars could be heard miles away - that was musical entertainment.

But all that aside, the sport now has more motoring companies interested rather than individual owners. The owners being a wealthy person who liked fast cars and wanted a bit of publicity and had a lot of extra money didn't know what to do with it . This is a good thing because it shows that companies which are interested in the sport are moving to adopt hybrid technologies into their regular motor lineups. Mercedes has already implemented the tech into the Mercedes Project 1, McLaren’s automotive devision already uses the F1 team’s chassis principal - strong and light monocage into their entire range of cars and Ferrari had implemented the KERS system into the Ferrari Laferrari and formula1 style suspension into the Enzo and Laferrari. Not to forget Aston Martin’s collatoration with Red Bull to build the Valkyrie. This brings great, if not good cars to the road.

As a business where is it going….the sport as a business has to be sustainable in order to survive for years to come. With the FIA making rules and putting on more restrains on what can or cannot be done it does limit the cars but it also allows some of the smaller constructors to continue in the sport. There is also the threat of constructors leaving but it is also a different issue as it can be counted as crying wolf and wanting their own way. This is one aspect of the sport the other is to test out the reliability of the engines. I recon in the future we all could be having a F1 technology based car. Some say that the FIA or constructors meetings are also being attended by companies that are not in the F1 scene. I see two outcomes of this. First is the companies in question are there to enter F1 and to understand what all will have to be done to join the sport. The other outcome is that the companies are there to understand what can or cannot be included in the cars of the future. I say this as F1 Technology is having road applications and is getting road legal.

After all this thought, I did some reading and stumbled on an entity called FIA for environment. This is a body responsible for making the sport more environmentally friendly and sustainable. There is a good cause at its core and is somehow encouraging the companies to see where the cars performance can be taken as a part of being more environmentally friendly. I have however grown quite fond of the hybrid cars in F1 and am curious if the cars get any more hybrid its going to be just electric…..here is where my brain stops and says hang on a minute….isn’t that formula-e, because the hybrid technology is electric and the source of its power comes out of a battery.

This makes me wonder as to why do they go through all the trouble to introduce hybrid tech, they should have just given the teams a formula-e car and told them make track monsters out of it. If you look at the cars they are quite similar except for the wheel arches on the formula-e car. I recon they could have made them and yes I do know the amount of R&D and the money that would have gone to developing the cars but the base tech already exists for sometime now. 5 years and formula-e is gaining popularity slowly.

On that thought maybe F1 is going to end in the future and there will be only formula-e as the pinnacle of motorsport or it might merge with formula-e or will just transform into it. I can’t tell the future of it, am not psychic but I sure can speculate where it is going and what it could end up as…. Until any of that happens I am just going to sit back and enjoy the coming season(s)

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Comments (3)

  • I seemed to have missed this article when it came out. Keep em coming!

      3 years ago
  • That future F1 car looks really good. Plus it doesn't have a crappy halo

      3 years ago
  • Hi congratulations - your post has been selected by DriveTribe F1 Ambassador for promotion on the DriveTribe homepage.

      3 years ago
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