Mark's Grand Prix World.

Mark's Grand Prix World. Occasional observations on the world of Formula 1. Words by Mark Edwards, photo's by Håkan Ferm.

30/04/2016

ALL CHANGE..... Good afternoon everyone. This is just a quick message to tell you that I've been given an opportunity to write for the 'Formula One Addicted’ page. It starts with a race review for this weekend's Russian Grand Prix, so please check it out.
Take care,
Mark.

THE RECOVERY POSITION - BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX 2016, RACE REPORT....  The fight for the top step of the podium was decided v...
03/04/2016

THE RECOVERY POSITION - BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX 2016, RACE REPORT.... The fight for the top step of the podium was decided very early on today. With one contender not even making the start, one having a shunt and the third having severe finger trouble off the line, the win became easy. Behind that, all sorts went on! The ridiculous decision to keep the universally hated qualifying procedure has at least been somewhat eased by what now appears to be a fantastic decision to let the drivers use three compounds of Pirelli's for the race. No team used the same tyre strategy for both cars, which led to lots of ebbing and flowing of lap times and positions throughout. So, once again Formula One looks like it's shot itself in the foot on a Saturday, only to recover the situation and give us a thrilling spectacle on Sunday.
It's five wins on the trot now for Nico Rosberg. The disappointment of being fastest all weekend, only to lose out on pole to an incredible lap from him team-mate, was all made up for in the run to turn one. Again he got the better start of the two Mercedes, but this time he came out of the corner in first place and all he needed to do from then was manage his pace to the end. He ensured he kept enough life in his rubber to be quick around the pit-stops, then simply managed the gap to whatever was behind him. He won't get many easier victories. Although Lewis Hamilton seems reasonably content to have salvaged two podiums from poor positions at the end of the opening lap, if he continues to have terrible starts a third consecutive championship will rapidly slip away from him.
With an aggressive strategy and a good start, Kimi Raikkonen had an outside chance of winning today. However, his poor getaway put paid to that. I don't really think Ferrari had the race pace to trouble the leader, but again, if Kimi had exited the first corner in second place, they could have tried a two-stopper to get themselves on the top step at the finish. Sebastian Vettel's engine failure on the formation lap is a cause of great concern for the Scuderia. They're already 50 points behind Mercedes in the constructor's standings after only two races, and if they have to start taking grid penalties for reliability issues later on in the year, they're never going to catch up.
If Red Bull can get themselves in the mix at the start of a race, they have real chances of pulling off a shock result. Daniel Ricciardo's pace throughout, even after getting involved in the first corner antics, shows that when they get some proper power behind them, said to be in Canada, podiums will be possible. It seemed a strange choice to put the Aussie on medium tyres for his final fifteen laps, but ultimately, it made no difference to his result. Daniil Kvyat had his second awful qualifying in two weeks. He appeared to spend most of the race getting overtaken, yet salvaged six points and seventh position from a 15th place start. Solid and consistent all race, he couldn't have finished any higher. There are, however, two kids chomping at the bit to get into the mother team, so he very much needs to step it up on a Saturday afternoon.
Who would have thought it? A brand new outfit enters the sport, scores an incredible sixth place on their debut, then goes one better with fifth on their second outing. Romain Grosjean used the opportunity of being the first car with an open tyre choice for the race to perfection. I don't know who the chief strategist is at Haas, but they deserve a pay rise. Two races in and they're already outsmarting the likes of Williams and Toro Rosso. No way was their car faster over a race distance, yet they played this one to perfection and beat both of them. The decision to put the Frenchman on used super-softs for his third stint was inspired. By then the surface had rubbered-in enough for the red-walls, even previously worn ones, to keep going for 16 fast laps and claim that valuable position. Esteban Gutierrez was also going well, with a reasonable chance of a point or two, before brake failure curtailed his afternoon. He shouldn't be too unhappy though, until that moment his pace was very encouraging.
If Pirelli's medium compound tyre had performed today as it had done on Friday, I suspect Max Verstappen would be celebrating a fourth place finish, rather than two positions further back. Toro Rosso tried a two-stopper with the Dutchman, but degradation was way too high to pull it off successfully, so he reverted to three stops, ultimately falling behind Ricciardo and Grosjean. When on the softs or super-softs, he was very brisk indeed, but they deserve credit for at least trying something different, even if, in the end, they couldn't quite pull it off. Carlos Sainz was another one involved in a first lap incident, damaging various parts of his machine. He soldiered on, but the car became undrivable. Fortune wasn't on Toro Rosso's side today, and as has been mentioned many times before, this is the time they need to score big, before all the others get power upgrades.
For Williams, the Bahrain Grand Prix was an example of how to get it all wrong, although I think they have every right to feel aggrieved over the drive-through penalty given to Valtteri Bottas after his first corner shunt. Charlie Whiting has stated many times that the stewards should be lenient on any first-lap antics, and the gap was there, so to me it was simply a racing incident. Away from that, this was the only squad to try two-stopping with both cars (although due to his penalty Bottas went through the pits three times). Felipe Massa exited the first corner in second place, Bottas third. From there they simply went backwards. It was quite apparent the medium tyres weren't the ones to be on, yet they let Massa complete two full stints on them. With a little more nous there's no reason they couldn't have finished much, much higher. In their quest for a third successive third place in the championship, days like today are important. Today they missed out.
McLaren showed they can get the thinking right by giving Stoffel Vandoorne the chance to score on his debut. He took that chance with tenth place, and he can thank the team for Jenson Button's retirement to allow him that solitary point. Jenson made a great start, got ahead of the Belgian on the first lap, and with the pace he showed through practice, could have bagged a decent haul of points. Vandoorne meanwhile, looked a little out of his depth on Friday, but he learnt quickly, got up to speed, then out-qualified his new team-mate with a great lap on Saturday. His pace did fluctuate somewhat over the proceedings today, but nobody could have expected any more from him. An excellent first outing.
Renault certainly had a weekend to forget. Jolyon Palmer never made the start lights, and Kevin Magnussen, due his rather unfortunate penalty, had to start from the pit-lane, compromising his whole race. He did what he could, and indeed he battled hard, but a points scoring finish was never on the cards. Both these guys have real talent, and once Renault's ambition (and money) starts to show, I'm sure we'll see these two fighting at least near the top of the mid-field.
Sauber's quest for a top ten finish seems a long way off. You can tell both Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr are pushing as hard as possible by the way they fought each other on track today. All this for a twelfth and fourteenth place finish. The Swede came out on top this time, but it must be difficult for them to keep their motivation up with such average machinery at their disposal, coupled with the uncertainty over the whole future for the Hinwil squad. They both deserve to be on the grid, and they both deserve something better with which to showcase their skills.
Pascal Wehrlein showed the world this weekend why he's rated so highly. Manor have the slowest car in the field, yet the German qualified 16th and finished above a Sauber and both Force Indias. This was no fluke either. Although both the Silverstone boys had problems, Wehrlein lapped at a very consistent, incredible pace for what he had underneath him. Grosjean and Haas may get all the headlines, but Pascal Wehrlein is by far my 'driver of the day'. Rio Haryanto finished 30 seconds behind his team-mate, but there was a decent amount of the race where he all but matched the other Manor. The main difference was his decision to use the medium tyres for his third stint, rather than the super-softs which were put on the other car. It's going to be difficult for the first ever Indonesian in F1 to shine with such a rapid guy on the other side of the garage, but he's coped well so far, and has shown some true flashes of speed.
Both Force India drivers got themselves into scrapes during the opening laps, and neither of them recovered. By lap 4 both had made a pit-stop, both of them made the mistake of using the medium tyre at some stage of the race, and neither of them could muster any kind of decent lap time throughout. Whether they're having problems with set-up or overall balance, the heights of last year's fifth place in the championship appear some way off at the moment. There's obviously some speed in the car, as was made apparent by Nico Hulkenberg's eighth place in qualifying. Both the German and Sergio Perez were catching the Sauber in front of them at the end, but Sauber isn't the team they should be fighting with. I'm sure there's a lot of head-scratching going on back at Silverstone.
Well, that's race two over and done with. So, what have we learnt? As expected, Ferrari are closer to Mercedes, but not on a par with them yet. Red Bull have some ominous race pace already, so watch out for them when they get more power from under the engine cover. Behind that, it's still anyone's guess. Williams are doing well on a Saturday, much less so on race day. Bit-by-bit, McLaren are creeping up the field. There's pace in the Force India, but not always. Haas have been a revelation, can they keep it up? Toro Rosso still look the best bet for a shock result. and you know Renault will come on strong soon. In short, it's going to be a hell of a fight for fourth place. I can't wait!

TOYS OUT THE PRAM..... Max Verstappen has come under quite considerable criticism during the last fortnight over his beh...
01/04/2016

TOYS OUT THE PRAM..... Max Verstappen has come under quite considerable criticism during the last fortnight over his behaviour at the Australian Grand Prix. His outbursts over the radio, at times almost insisting the team instructed his team-mate to swap places has led to many column inches berating him for having that attitude.
The fact is, his race pace was indeed quicker than Carlos Sainz in the other Toro Rosso, but just like in Singapore last year when the Dutchman was ahead of the Spaniard, that's no reason to automatically let the other past. This is not the point. When you look beneath the castigation and condemnation, ignore the ethics and etiquette involved, all this episode demonstrates is that Max Verstappen has that will-to-win and exhibits exactly the characteristics needed to rise above the mere 'very good' and become a 'great'.
When you look at all the multiple world champions in recent years, every one of them has displayed a ruthless quality that sets them apart from the rest of the field.
Michael Schumacher showed that side of his character on many occasions. From the on-track shenanigans with Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve during title-deciders, where deliberately driving in to an opponent seemed the preferred option for him, to the team orders scandal at the A1-Ring in 2002, when Rubens Barrichello had to cede the win at the final corner, he did what was necessary (although not always successfully) to win another crown. His determination and status within Ferrari meant that when they only had one new F2002 ready for Brazil that year, he was the recipient. Rather like Jim Clark at Lotus and Jackie Stewart at Tyrrell many years before, the team was built around him. Even test-pilot Luca Badoer changed his driving style to mimic Michael's so they knew which developments would better suit their number one. Of course, none of this would have happened if he wasn't simply very, very fast in the first place. But speed isn't everything. After Michael's first retirement, the Scuderia employed Kimi Raikkonen as his replacement. One engineer stated during Kimi's first season there, that he was quicker than anyone they'd ever seen through fast corners. This immediately after their previous star had just won five consecutive championships with them! Currently, Raikkonen has just the one title to his name, yet on pure talent alone, there aren't many out there who would doubt that he's one of the most naturally gifted F1 drivers of all time. Kimi drives, Michael was driven.
When double world champion Fernando Alonso joined Ferrari in 2010, it soon became clear that he absolutely demanded top billing. After winning first time out for them in Bahrain, he was clearly incensed during the next event at Albert Park when the team wouldn't order Felipe Massa to let him pass, even though it was quite apparent he was the quicker of the two. A few choice words to right people afterwards culminated in the now infamous 'Fernando Is Faster Than You' episode nine races later in Germany. He may not have ever accomplished that title victory for the Italians, but three second places in four years, in a car that was never even second best on the grid any of those times, shows how close his exacting stance came to paying off.
The merciless nature of four time champion Sebastian Vettel truly came to the fore during the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2013. It wasn't just the words of the radio message 'Get Him Out Of The Way, He's Too Slow', about team-mate Mark Webber ahead of him, it was the derision in his voice as he spoke. He knew he was 'top-dog' in the team, he knew he was faster, he knew he could get away with ignoring the 'Multi-Map 21' order he was given and overtake Webber for the victory without too much bother from his bosses after the race. Vettel has also shown his ability to adapt where needed. When exhaust-blown diffusers were first used, the German spent countless hours with his engineers working out the best way to use this new tool to his advantage. He then completely changed his driving style, and the rest is history.
The current multiple champion, Lewis Hamilton, will quite gladly use just a little more track than is necessary, Schumacheresque, particularly at the first corner, and particularly against his team-mate, Nico Rosberg. He'll display a look of arrogance after a pole or a win, a look that says 'Well of course I'm first', and a pout like a child when beaten, a look of almost incredulity that somehow he could be bettered. Like all the others on this list, he has this total self-belief in his abilities (and of course, the speed to back it up), a belief and a persona which even if not admitted by the teams, will sway them towards favouring one side of the garage.
Which brings me back to Max. It's now quite clear he displays the desire, the hunger, the single-mindedness, and all the other personality traits as the champions I've spoken about. If I was running an F1 operation, rather than chastising him for being petulant, I'd sign him on a long-term deal, make him my undisputed number-one driver, and do whatever I could to design a car that suits his technique, knowing he'll deliver.

A SMASHING START - AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2016........    The season opener. All the teams fly halfway across the world, ...
20/03/2016

A SMASHING START - AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2016........ The season opener. All the teams fly halfway across the world, ready to do battle again. Want they want initially is to correlate all their testing data and get some true figures the first chance they have at an actual race weekend. The cars are prepped, tyres warmed, mechanics ready. And then it rains! Without properly knowing how the tyres are going to behave, race strategy becomes as much guesswork as skill. Add a red flag into the mix around the first pit-stops and you get a field more mixed up than any stupid qualifying system can make.
A lot was said about the restrictions over radio messages being the a big factor in the outcome of the race. In the end, the switch to a single clutch paddle proved decisive.
The hours pounding around Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on medium tyres seems like a great decision now for Mercedes. While their nearest competitors didn't want to use them due to not being confident of their performance, the Brackley squad could put them on, safe in the knowledge that they could switch them on easily and go long. Although he was overtaken at the start, the better getaway Nico Rosberg got than his team-mate ultimately decided the outcome of this race. Beaten by Lewis Hamilton in every session before the race, less finger trouble when the lights went out gave him the 25 points and the lead of the championship. What will worry him though is when he looks at the telemetry after the race. Having put on a new set of medium Pirelli's to Hamilton's used set, he still lapped consistently slower during that stint.
Hamilton meanwhile was very happy with his second place after a terrible start and lot of time lost sitting behind a Toro Rosso. When he finally got some clean air, he toured quickly and closed the gap to the front considerably, which will confirm his belief that he'll finish the season ahead the pack again.
Could Ferrari have won this race? We'll never know for sure, but if they keep starting like that they'll certainly win more than the three races they did last year. Sebastian Vettel showed that Ferrari are indeed closer on race pace to the leaders, but also that they're still somewhat behind on a Saturday afternoon. The rain on Friday aided their decision to go aggressive on strategy and use the super-softs after the red flag, and initially it looked like the gamble might work, Vettel posting four consecutive fastest laps at the re-start. The extra pit-stop, and a slow one at that, handed Mercedes the one-two finish, but the German was closing in on Hamilton at the end, and without his spin at turn 15 near the end, he might just have been able to climb to second spot.
Kimi Raikkonen had another weekend being eclipsed by his team-mate, and the fiery end to his race saved him from finishing one place off the podium again, The Ferrari SF16-H is a car that suits him better than either of the last two to come out of Maranello, but he'll need a little more from himself if the Scuderia want to eclipse the Stuttgart squad for the constructor's crown.
In the short time between the end of pre-season testing and now, Renault appear to have made some good progress with their power-unit. Daniel Ricciardo secured a typically battling fourth place, and clean overtakes on Mercedes powered Williams and Force India cars will give them great hope. A third stop for super-softs also meant the Aussie was the only driver to dip into the 1 minute 28's, which again shows great promise. If the power upgrades give the extra performance promised, we may well be having three-way fights at the front later this year. Poor Daniil Kvyat travelled so far for nothing. Out in Q1 on Saturday, he didn't even make the start on race day. At least he knows that when they get the car running properly, it's going to be very fast indeed.
I fear that a fifth and eighth place finish could be the best Williams will get for some time to come. The car can be quick, but the lap times are all over the place, there's just no consistency. Today the red flag helped Felipe Massa to ten points, without it he'd have struggled for four. After an awful qualifying session, Valtteri Bottas salvaged some points, again helped by the timing of the stoppage. The team needs to do something quickly to get the FW38 consistent, otherwise they're going to be overtaken by many of the teams snapping at their heels.
What a debut for Haas F1! Surely they wouldn't even have dreamt of finishing sixth in their very first race. Even though that red flag was waved at exactly the right time for Romain Grosjean, his lap times thereafter were on a par with the Williams and Force India's around him. The way he dealt with the pressure he must have been under to get to the finish and bag those valuable points shows how much he's matured as a driver. Haas F1's race pace certainly looks much better than in qualifying, both cars only beating Manor on Saturday. Esteban Gutierrez was having quite a lonely time, running around near the back on well worn soft tyres, when he hit the brake pedal at just the wrong moment for Fernando Alonso. Fortunately, both came out unscathed, but it's going to be a bit of a rush for Haas to get a car ready for the Mexican in time for Bahrain.
Force India will be feeling a little disappointed after today's proceedings. More than any other team, this lot were disadvantaged by the mid-race break, but their overall pace was not as fast as I expected. Nico Hulkenberg was beaten by a Haas, and Sergio Perez for once couldn't get his tyres working and finished out of the points. I've always said that the Silverstone squad were pound-for-pound the best run team in the pit-lane, but for now they appear to be treading water.
The last two to score today were the Toro Rosso boys. How different it could have been. At the start they were scrapping with the Mercedes, dreaming of a podium finish, by the end they were scrapping with each other for ninth and tenth. Given a clean race, they'd have scored massively for such a small team. Give them a clean race next time out and I expect they will. Once again Max Verstappen showed he has the legs on Carlos Sainz during a race. he also showed that his race-craft is better. Carlos may have finished one place up, but again, given a clean race....
Jolyon Palmer came within one place of scoring on his Formula One debut, but in the end it wasn't in the car. What he did the rest of the weekend though was mightily impressive. Under huge pressure to put in a fast lap right at the end of Q1, he nailed it superbly and got through. Then in Q2, he out-qualified his highly rated team-mate. nothing more could have been asked of him in Melbourne. A kiss with a Williams ended Kevin Magnussen's chances of a good result on lap one. That puncture, and Renault's lack of pace kept him trundling around near the back for the rest of the distance. Now there's some money behind the team, I'm sure it won't be too long before we see some real improvement in the times, and these two will be given the opportunity to really shine.
After an encouraging qualifying session, it all went wrong for McLaren today. Jenson Button lost out to the red flag caused when his team-mate pitted early, got caught behind Gutierrez, and then hit Gutierrez. Fernando Alonso showed really good pace right up to his horrific accident. In fact, all weekend he showed the improvement in the McLaren. Unless Honda make some giant leaps soon, I still don't think podiums are on the cards for them this year, but regular points finishes should be their target.
Getting into the top ten is going to be difficult for Sauber in 2016. Both cars failed to get out of Q1, and it didn't look much better for them during the race. They both had poor starts, Marcus Ericsson suffered a failure, and Felipe Nasr could only finish ahead of Wehrlein's Manor. There's talk of a major sponsorship deal to be announced very soon. This lot need it.
Manor are going to have another season rooted at the back. Pascal Wehrlein had a fantastic start, getting right up to 14th at the end of lap one. He was never going to stay there, but it showed great race-craft to get there. Rio Haryanto out-qualified his highly-rated team-mate, and lapped solidly, if not as quickly, before his car gave up on him. Overall, both drivers can feel pleased with their first performance at the top level.
So, it looks like we might have a proper race at the front this year. After the appalling, and frankly embarrassing events yesterday, which thankfully we'll never see again, I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season.

THIS HAS TO STOP....  The debacle we witnessed at Albert Park today is, in some ways a welcome distraction for F1's rule...
19/03/2016

THIS HAS TO STOP.... The debacle we witnessed at Albert Park today is, in some ways a welcome distraction for F1's rule-makers. Let's face it, the more we talk about the farce that was qualifying, the less we concentrate on the real issue, which is the processional racing we've had to endure recently. The way I see it, it doesn't matter how silly the goings-on are the rest of the weekend, if the races were exciting, all that would be forgiven.
How do we get good racing? Well, here's a plan to make that so, and also make the whole thing significantly cheaper.
AERO.
1 - Single element front wings, no slots, no gaps. End-plates can stay as they are. Due to different types of circuit, the teams have to submit three designs of front wing for the first six races. From race seven, they can introduce two more designs, but that's it for the season, five different front wing configurations. I would keep the central neutral zone and lower the overall total area for the wing to about half the size now available.
2 - Rear wings would also become single-element. If they still wanted DRS, I'm sure that could still be worked out. Again no slots or gaps on the wings or end-plates either. No beam-wings, no monkey-seats. The wing element would be smaller and the end-plates much smaller, with the whole wing lower down by about 100mm.
3- The rest of the bodywork would be devoid of all barge-boards, C & D wings, flick-ups, razor-teeth and the like. All surfaces would be fully sculpted, nose, engine cover and side-pods. For hot races, two, three or four slots would be allowed in the side-pods for cooling, depending on the circuit.
4- Exhausts would stay as they are now, but angled down a little, so you couldn't use the exhaust gas to help with the lower rear-wing.
5 - I'd bring noses back up as well. They were taken down on safety grounds after Mark Webber's accident in Valencia, but he came away unscathed. I've wondered whether the lower nose helped Jules Bianchi's Marussia submarine under that support truck?
6 - It states in the rules that brake-ducts should not be used for aero gain, something we all know is ignored, so my idea is that they have to submit three designs at the start of the season, for low, medium and high brake-wear tracks,which they can use however they wish.
SUSPENSION
The teams would be given a standard Hydro-Pneumatic suspension system to use. Far too much cash is spent on suspensions, for not much gain either, and even when one team does come up with something clever it only gets banned anyway. We've seen 'mass-dampers' and FRIC systems come and go, so why bother ourselves wasting time, money and effort on a new idea, only to see that outlawed as well. A great advantage of the Hydro-Pneumatic suspension is that it could easily be adjusted and re-designed if, in accordance with the tyre manufacturers wishes, 18 inch wheel rims were to be debuted.
DOWNFORCE
All of this would greatly reduce downforce, so to make the cars at least as quick as they were, I'd give the teams more scope underneath the car. Get rid of the plank, let them use (strictly regulated, non-movable) skirts. With the ability to re-design the floor, they'll be back up to pace immediately. In fact they may be even quicker, so you might need to have a neutral zone in the middle or either side of the floor to keeps speeds reasonable. They might also have to enforce a shorter diffuser to lower cornering speeds.
All the actions so far should make the cars as fast as they are now, but significantly reduce the 'dirty-air' when running behind a competitor, closing the field up and allowing far greater chances of overtaking.
POWER-TRAINS.
To try and make the current formula less power-train dependent, I would give all engine providers complete freedom from now until the end of next season. Hopefully by then they'll all have got to somewhere near the same level. After that I'd stop any development for two years, before opening them up again for one more season, freeze for two more, and so on. Hopefully, this would kerb some of the excessive spending on gaining a couple of extra horsepower.
TYRES
This generally depends on whichever supplier has the contract, so it doesn't really matter whether you have the current style high-degradation option or the virtually no-wear rubber we had not so long ago. They might have to make them narrower if downforce levels from underneath the cars developed too quickly, we don't want the drivers to have to wear pilot-style g-suits! One way of keeping mechanical grip through wider tyres comes from my next point.
REGULATIONS
To perhaps avoid one team out-spending, therefore out-performing the others, as we do now, and to try and give brain-power the edge over spending-power, I'd tweak the aero regulations every year, not massively, but just enough to make the current cars obsolete. For example, one year a double-plane rear wing might come in, the next it'll be back to a single-plane wing, but the floor might be opened up slightly. However, to stop the more affluent teams simply pouring a mountain of cash into the solution, I wouldn't give the time to! I'd set the new regs. at Monza each year, that way the teams wouldn't be able to come up with the ultimate solution before car-build has to start. This gives us more chance of a smaller team coming up with a clever idea and gaining a jump on the field early on. Yes, those with bigger wallets will catch-up, but they might not start the season at the front and simply stay there.
The limit on wings, brake ducts and power-train development should in itself save a reasonable sum. The fact that you can't design your new car before September should mean you save loads as well, but there's one other measure (which the big teams won't like at all) that would save a fortune. With these regulations, you simply don't need to employ so many people to put two cars on a race track for a year. I propose that team numbers are limited. What if the teams can only use,say, 400 people if they don't make a power-unit, and 500 if they do? These figures may seem like they've been plucked out of thin air, but teams have survived with many fewer people, and very recently as well. The whole thing could be staggered. It would work a little bit like engine tokens do now. For example, if you make your own gear-box, that's 30 extra people on the payroll. The team may only need 25 in that department, so they could deploy five extra in the race team, or the aero department, or wherever they wish.
The teams would argue that they'd have to make a lot of people redundant if this were brought in, but surely F1 would become so much cheaper many other teams could join. There are lots of great squads out there who can't climb to the summit of single-seater racing because of the costs involved, but make it this much cheaper and hopefully the likes of ART, Racing Engineering, DAMS, Carlin and many others would be able to make that step up. The better show should attract more television viewers, and subsequently more sponsors, again making the transition easier. We may even get to the stage where we need pre-qualifying again on a Friday.
So there you have it, and I know it's a re-hash of something I wrote a year ago (and thanks to Roger Sutcliffe for the best ideas here), but after what we've all just been put through, it feel it needed saying.

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