“We are combining active steering with electronic micro systems and anti-roll bars to a new functionality,” Goeschel says. “Electronics and software technology will play a major role in car technology in the future, so that is an area we are discussing [about permitting in F1].
Added Goeschel: “
F1 is an area to train our engineers to take decisions and in developing future technologies. [What] will keep manufacturers in F1 is if F1 is focused on future technology for the car industry.”
Earlier this year Ferrari spokesman Luca Colajanni told me essentially the same thing.
“What is important to us is that there is always a link to our road car production,” Colajanni said. “For a manufacturer like Ferrari, that is the way it must be. The link between the race car and the road car is critical to
Ferrari. We tend to transfer a lot of the technology that is used in Formula One to the road cars we produce. We want to avoid having a Formula One car that doesn’t require that kind of technology so there is no need to transfer it to our road cars and there is no connection between Formula One and the road cars.”
So Mosley and the GPMA have made a pact to keep new technology as a continuing component of
Formula One. All this may be great for the manufacturers and for the F1 teams, the
FIA and
Bernie Ecclestone as a way of keeping F1’s primary money tree alive and well.
But of course, the big question is what will it do for the fans?
The FIA’s own poll of F1 fans this year revealed that by far the number one issue was more passing. But what is the FIA doing about it? The answer at this point is nothing.
