F1: Check your soul at the door?

As we near the beginning of another season of Formula 1, I find myself considering the changes the FIA has made to my favorite sport over the recent years. Done in the name of cost-savings, rules have been changed all across the board--engines, qualifying, the points system...too many to type here.

No sport remains static, and I'm not suggesting that Formula 1 should. F1 is probably the epitome of a sport that cannot remain static and be true to itself, due to the emphasis on cutting edge technology, but there is good change and bad change. I remain concerned that many of the modifications of the past several years fall into the latter category.

Over the decades F1 has allowed the very best and brightest engineers and designers to explore the limits of the fusion between man and automobile. It has never been an inexpensive endeavor. Out of that expensive struggle to find the tiny tweak to an engine or chassis that nets the crucial tenth of a second, comes not only classic racing results that remain in our hearts and minds for decades, but also innovation that can be applied to the "real" world.

F1 and other racing engineers have given us such things as variable valve timing, variable intake and exhaust manifolds, exhaust tuning, multi-path exhaust systems, electro/hydraulic differential control, pneumatic valves, variable vane turbo charging, active suspension designs, tire designs and ECU control. Putting artificial fetters on the technical staff is a self-limiting and defeatist approach that, pushed too far, will drive some of those bright minds to other fields. That may not be bad for humankind (depending on where they land) but is a topic for another forum.

What we lose by removing innovation and cutting edge technology from F1 is the very soul of the sport--the thing that differentiates it from almost every other motorsport. F1 fans love more than just fast cars and talented drivers. We love more than just G forces, duels for an apex, and bubbly on the podium. We love the tension inherent in the push to ever-higher levels of technology and the marriage of the driver's skill with that technology. It represents the best and brightest of human acheivement, and it's sad to see it slipping away.