Thursday Thoughts – Is engine parity necessary for 2010?

Over at Sidepodcast, they have started an initiative called Thursday Thoughts, where someone poses a topic or a question for people to comment and blog about. This time the question is as it states in the title: is it necessary to have engine parity for the 2010 F1 season. Or for those who want it in simple terms – should all engines be equalised?

Personally, my response is a combination of yes and no. Yes, everyone wants close racing and yes, no-one wants to see one team or one car driving off into the distance and dominating all the time. But at the same time, no-one wants F1 to become just another spec series like GP2, A1GP or IndyCar. Therefore, I propose a solution that keeps all the engines relative of each other while still allowing the teams some freedom in development.

What I think could work is this – the FIA gives every team a base unit. Very basic, very simple but with plenty of customisation available. The teams are then given a set budget which can be spent on developing this engine. They are free to spend as much of this as they want and develop it how they wish, but still keeping within the regulations laid out by the FIA.

That way, these engines are still related to each other in their basic components but at the same time are independent of each other as the teams have done their own work with them. Whether it could work we don’t know since nothing like this has been suggested. The only thing that comes close is the Cosworth unit which has gone to the new teams and Williams.

It’s nice to see competition and competitiveness in F1, but as mentioned no-one wants to see a runaway domination of the championship. Equality in F1 is good to a certain extent. Sure, series like GP2 can provide good close racing at times but this sport is all about the pinnacle of engineering and technology and innovation. Without any of that, it’s just another form of motorsport.

The drive to survive

It’s interesting how a team’s fortunes can change so quickly. Renault are pretty much deciding their future in F1 as I write this, while Sauber’s is safe and secure. The long-awaiting announcement that they would take the 13th spot on the entry list for the 2010 F1 season was a big relief to all those concern with the Hinwil outfit’s future. After a false takeover from Qadbak, which turned out to be nothing but a plot to exploit the funding the team would receive from the FIA due to their championship position from 2009. But Peter Sauber rescued his team from the brink of extinction and now all is well.

Meanwhile over in France, there is talk that David Richards of Prodrive is looking to buy out Renault’s F1 team. There were rumours a few months ago that Richards would take over as team principal after Briatore and Symonds were both exiled from the team after the Crashgate scandal involving Piquet’s accident at Singapore last year. There was also talk of 4 times world champion Alain Prost would step in as a team advisor. But those rumours quickly faded into the background and into obscurity.

Now, however, Richards’ name has come back into the fray. If it does happen, I couldn't think of anyone better to take control of an F1 team. The man oversees proceedings for the WRC, has looked after Subaru’s World Rally Team, currently campaigns Aston Martin-Lola’s in the LMS and at Le Mans, not forgetting his past exploits with the team when it was Benetton and also with BAR. Oh, and he’s overseen Ford’s works effort in the Australian V8 Supercar Championship.

You can’t deny the guy’s done the rounds when it comes to looking after race teams. With him at the head of the team, should it be re-branded Prodrive, or Aston Martin as has been touted, it hopefully shouldn’t be too much of a task to help the Enstone outfit be on the pace of the frontrunners once again. But there is one question on people’s lips – what of Kubica.

Currently, he has a contract with Renault. But if they decide to sell up to Richards and it becomes Prodrive, where would they both stand regarding his position in the team? Would he still stay firm and race for them? Will he go to another team? It has been rumoured that Mercedes would be his best bet since the second seat alongside Rosberg is yet to be announced. There are many rumours flying around who is going to get that drive. So far, Kubica’s teammate from the past 3 and a bit seasons, Nick Heidfeld, has been tipped as favourite, although talk of Michael Schumacher making a surprise return with a manufacturer he once raced sportscars for has been rife, although it has trailed off recently.

Whatever happens, I’m sure it will all come good in the end. Just like Sauber, who have an engine supply from Ferrari and a team in charge by its namesake once again, things are getting back to how they used to be. Something I’m all for.

They are the young ones

This week in Jerez, all 9 F1 teams are out testing potential up and coming talent in the FIA’s official Young Driver Days. To someone who solely focuses on F1, you won’t have heard of pretty much most if not all of them. But if you’re someone like me, who happens to have a broad spread of knowledge and following when it comes to motorsport, you will have. Below is a list of all the drivers participating, and alongside them in brackets is the series they come from:

Brawn/Mercedes: Mike Conway (IndyCar), Marcus Ericsson (F3)
Red Bull: Daniel Ricciardo (F3)
McLaren: Gary Paffett (DTM), Oliver Turvey (WSR/GP2)
Ferrari: Jules Bianchi (F3), Daniel Zampieri (F3), Marco Zipoli (F3), Pablo Sanchez Lopez (F3)
Renault: Bertrand Baguette (WSR), Ho Pin Tung (Superleague), Lucas di Grassi (GP2)
BMW: Alexander Rossi (Formula Master), Estiban Gutierrez (F3)
Williams: Andy Soucek (F2), Nico Hulkenberg (GP2/F1)
Force India Paul di Resta (DTM), JR Hildebrand (Indy Lights)
Toro Rosso: Brendon Hartley (WSR/F3), Mirko Bortolotti (F3)

Not all of them will test on the same day as each other. Driver rotation throughout the 3 days ensure everyone gets a fair turn behind the wheel of their respective machinery. Apart from the BMW guys, the 3 Italian F3 drivers for Ferrari, Ericsson and Hildebrand, I’ve heard of all of these guys in some shape or form.

I think testing session like this are a very good idea. In fact, I’m in favour of bringing in some form of in-season testing again, if only to give drivers who are stepping in to take over from existing ones a chance to get used to the car before the next race weekend. We saw this season that drivers like Badoer and Grosjean suffered badly. Sure, Luca got a run in the F60 at Fiorano before his debut in Valencia, but it was a promotional run on demonstration tyres. He had no opportunity whatsoever to get used to the car in a qualifying or race simulation and spent most of the two race weekends he participated in suffering as a result, both from criticism and in pace.

Of course, the reason why the FIA banned in-season testing was to reduce costs. They want to get the spending levels back to those of the early 90s. But think about it – back then teams were still able to go testing, even the smaller ones. Well OK, maybe not all the smaller teams but the majority of the grid were still able to run at Silverstone or Monza in the days and weeks leading up to the respective race weekends. Why not allow testing for replacement drivers so that they get a chance to get to know the machine they’re about to wrestle around whichever circuit the F1 circus stops at next. But to make sure there’s no testing or development of any new parts, have an FIA steward present in the garage at all times. That way it ensures any updates only get tested in practice, like they have had to have been this year.

It should be a good thing that Formula 1 teams need to encourage young, up and coming talent into the sport, and the FIA should wholeheartedly embrace that. These Young Driver days are just the start, and while they do still want to reduce costs, this would surely be an initiative well worth investing in. Heck, if they managed to find any gems, I’m sure their potential success would help bring in the returns the FIA would want.

Also, who out of that lot up there seems to be in the best shape to secure an F1 drive in the future? Well, Bianchi for one has got to be up there. Yes, his times haven’t been fantastic but Ferrari have signed him up for the long term, which means they must have some faith and insight into the F3 Euro Series champion’s ability. If they can develop and nurture it appropriately, I think it’ll pay dividends for them. Also, I reckon a couple others are F2 Champion Andy Soucek and Paul di Resta for Force India. Soucek’s abilities shone through yesterday when he finished the first day on top of the time sheets. Personally, I think Williams should secure him as their 3rd and test driver for 2010 and then try and groom him as a replacement for Barrichello as and when he decides to end his racing career. di Resta has also looked impressive, as he put himself in the top 3 both yesterday and today. The man has talent, no doubt about it. Just whether any F1 teams pick up on it also remains to be seen. As with Soucek, he deserves a 3rd and test driver role with Force India.

These teams have to try and make more of an effort to help develop and nurture this young talents so that they become the stars of the future. All they need is for the FIA to see this too and allow them to run in test sessions away from the race weekends so that when a scenario like Massa’s in Hungary or Glock’s in Japan occurs, they don’t take forever to get up to speed and can instantly run at the pace the usual driver was at. If not on par, then around that level. This not only benefits them, but also the team and everyone else on the grid, as these replacement drivers don’t pose so much of a threat as they would when driving without having gotten familiar with their machine.

Will anything like this happen? Who knows. With a new FIA president in place, let’s sure hope so.

If I ruled the FIA…

The FIA presidential elections are next month and at last we get to see the end of Max Mosley’s reign over the world of motorsport. In his place we will either see Jean Todt or Ari Vatanen and myself, along with a lot of my good friends over at Sidepodcast.com, would like to see the latter take the victory, despite the odds being against him.

This has just got me thinking – if I were FIA president, what rule changes would I want to implement in order for F1 to become better and more competitive, as well as easily accessible to the fans? These are only ideas off the top of my head, but of course you’re free to have your own say as to what you would do to change F1 if you had the chance.

1. Bring back pre-qualifying
For those of you who remember the late 80s and early 90s in F1, you will no doubt have heard of this. If not, let me explain. With so many small teams coming into the fray in this period of time, there simply wasn’t enough space on track for up to 39 odd cars from 20 teams all at once. Hence where pre-qualifying comes in. How it works is simple – at the time 30 cars were allowed to attempt to qualifying. But with only 26 spaces on the grid available for Sunday, this meant that 4 extra qualfying slots were available. A pre-qualifying session determined who got those 4 slots and were then permitted to attempt to qualifying for the race.

By the end of 1990, all these small teams were dying out and because of this it was no longer needed. But with so many entries for those 3 new team spaces for next year’s F1 World Championship, it would be a shame to see them all go to waste. Lola is a great example – they already have a scale model of what would have been their 2010 car on display at the factory, had they been selected by the FIA. Essentially, it’s a car that will never be built and therefore we will never find out just how competitive it would have been out on track.

Bringing back pre-qualifying would allow these teams to build their cars and take them to race weekends so that they could try and prove their worth. No matter how many cars that turn up, the pre-qualifying could take place and those who either don’t pre-qualify or those that do but don’t qualify can take part in a kind of support race alongside the GP2 and Porsche Supercup championships. This way their journey is not wasted – either way they would still be able to race and develop their cars and at the same time be able to test them against the other competition.

This would also require a reduction in the entry fees for the F1 world championship and of course the ability to allow teams to appear at GPs mid-season, like it used to be. It means more of a show for the fans and teams that want to make the leap into F1 can do so, just much more easily than before.

2. R&D budgets
There was a proposed £40m budget cap that for a short period of time was implemented for 2010. But thanks to FOTA, this has been increased and spending has now been agreed to be reduced to levels that were seen during the early 90s.

This is all well and good but I think they should go a bit further. Each team is given a set budget (let’s say £20m for example, can be more) for research and development on their car. They are only allowed to use that £20m and nothing else on developing the car to make it perform better. Once they’ve spent it, that’s it – they cannot enhance the car any more.

This would prevent teams like Toyota or McLaren spending millions upon millions trying to make their car work that little bit better. By restricting how much they can play with, it would force them to be intuitive and wise in terms of how they go about irking out that bit more extra speed. It’s amazing how teams such as Force India have a very small budget compared to the bigger teams, yet have already taken 2 front row starts, a 2nd place and a 4th place in the last two races. It’s not how much money you have, it’s how you use it, and that’s how it should be with all teams.

Plus it would mean they had a choice – use all their money early on in the season, produce a quick car and hope no-one else catches up, or spend it wisely, gradually continue development over the season and then use what’s left for one last push at the end of the season, or if the car’s performing well enough, they have to option to save it for next year’s budget. But also, a rule could be enforced saying they have to have spent at least 75% or so of that budget by season end, so teams can’t choose to save most of it for the following year.

There was an e-mail I sent to Christine at Sidepodcast way back at the end of 2007 expressing opinions on the 10 year engine freeze. I suggested a budget for engine R&D there, and said that if there were customer teams, then they had their own budget as well as everyone else to develop their engine themselves. Also, their supplier was not allowed to copy or share information with their customers and their engine development. This would give those teams more of a feeling of individuality as they are the ones putting the work into THEIR engine, not waiting on their supplier to come out with an update which could take some time and hinder the teams near the middle or back of the grid from making progress. Also, it could allow smaller teams to come up with ingenious and unique upgrades which can help them move up the grid.

3. Reduction in ticket prices
Now who here that’s an F1 fan wouldn’t want to pay less to go to a GP? Something needs to be done in this sector to help pack the grandstands again. At races like Turkey and Valencia this year, the fans were few and far between with mostly empty grandstands. What does this suggest to anyone from the outside looking in? That F1’s a boring sport? It’s too expensive? Uninteresting?

Cheaper tickets mean more of them are sold, more people get through the gate and the grandstands are packed to the rafters. This makes F1 seem more attractive and exciting if the circuits are heaving with fans. One series they need to look at for an example of fan satisfaction and value for money is the World Series by Renault. They have events all across Europe (in this instance, I still don’t know why it’s called a World Series when it never leaves Europe!) and they provide F1 demos, a full day’s racing and plenty of off-track entertainment. The cost for all this? Nothing. Nil. Nadda. Zilch. Zip. Zero. Tickets are absolutely free. This is why it’s so popular. I’ve been twice to the British rounds at Donington and Silverstone respectively (would have gone this year too had it not been for a last minute change of plans), and I’ve loved it. Some of the best days out I’ve ever had.

Maybe F1 needs to try this. Tickets at rock bottom prices and full access to the grandstands and circuit facilities. Sure, it could mean a loss for the circuit but think of the satisfaction it gives the fans. F1 wants to boost its popularity and draw in more interest and new fans. Doing something like this would help out no end. If not, maybe some official F1 promotional events which see a few of the teams get together and put on a show for those interested. Let them get close to the cars and drivers and enjoy the whole experience.

I was very fortunate to win the Puma Motorsport competition earlier this year and go to Silverstone for the British GP weekend access all areas in the paddock (well, almost). Now most fans will never in their life get a chance like that ever in their life. But something should be done so they can get a bit more intimate with the sport and let them take away memories and experiences they will never forget. That is how you create new fans and keep the existing ones.

Your opinions: These are the only 3 I can think of at the moment. If you had the power to implement new rules to help make F1 better, what would you do? Bigger engines? Changes to the race weekend? Restrictions on what teams can do with their cars? Leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments!