Montreal was my destination last weekend for the Canadian GP to write a story for
Road & Track about this year's high-revving 2.4 litre V8s.
Engine rules are a matter of hot debate in
Formula One at the moment after
Max Mosley declared the FIA’s intentions at the British GP two weeks ago to require homologated (volume produced) engines in
F1 in 2008 replete with common ECUs for all. But as much as Mosley says there’s no negotiating about his proposal it was quite clear in Montreal that the engine manufacturers are intent on a few more rounds of parsing words and phrases with the inimitably dexterous Mosley.
The
FIA president’s ideas are aimed at making the manufacturers bend to his ways while masking them in the rhetoric of cost-cutting and achieving a level playing field. These well-worn rubrics have been trotted out time and again in the history of motor racing but they are goals that have rarely, if ever, been realised.
As we all know, the economics of racing are determined not by the rules, but by the amount of money any team or category is able to generate. The budget of any serious racing team is determined by its sponsorship income. Whatever the rules, the better-funded and motivated teams will spend what’s required to get the most out of the rulebook and otherwise outfox and outmanoeuvre the rule-makers.
NASCAR is the classic, modern example of course, where massive amounts of money and engineering are lavished on the tiniest details. And of course, in F1 the likes of
Ferrari and
Renault have been running the FIA ragged in recent years with flexible wings and methods of dynamically tuning the changing aerodynamic balance between front and rear wings.
