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Originally Posted by Pingguest
With such restrictive regulations Formula 1 indeed needs to be prepared for engine manufactures leaving the sport, as it chooses to follow instead of leading trends.
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Name one time when F1 has lead a 'trend'?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pingguest
Apart from being an expensive marketing tool, Formula 1 is increasingly irrelevant. This format is certainly not lasting.
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Right. No one is ever going to find anything road relevant about 18,000 rpm V8 F1 engines for road car use, but they do sound good, but not better than the equally irrelevant V10 and V12 engines.
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Originally Posted by Pingguest
Not unsurprisingly, the new 2014 engine regulations haven't lured any engine manufactures to (re-)enter the series.
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Maybe, like Peugeot, they are realising that electrically driven road cars are not just a fad.
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Originally Posted by Pingguest
The current economic recession does not help, but other series - LMP, WRC, Indycar and DTM - succeeded in attracting one or more new manufactures and are therefore certainly doing a better job.
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LMP gained Toyota, but lost Peugeot (see above). And infighting with regard to engine parity is still a major problem.
WRC doesn't even have a TV deal at the moment. And BMW are threatening to pull the plug on the 'Mini' project.
Indycar had given the engine manufacturers an engine choice of a maximum of six cylinders in any configuration. But guess what! Chrevrolet, Lotus and Honda have all built V6 engines! Who would have thought.
DTM has reduced costs drastically for the 2012 season, along with making it even more of a spec series. So it's little wonder that Audi and BMW have jumped back onboard.