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Rain Heroes from FUROBOT on Vimeo.

Formula 1 racing returned to the United States this weekend. While always enjoyable, this race typically leaves quite a bit to be desired. The design of the track forces the teams to set their cars up for high speed runs through a portion of the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. While it is great to see these marvels of engineering hurtling down the track, I prefer to watch them battling through the infield. Unfortunately, the infield racing at Indy is less than spectacular. The trade-offs the teams have to make to achieve high speeds down the straights mean that they have to remove a majority of the aerodynamics that provide the necessary down-force for high speeds throughout the rest of the track. I think it would behoove the FIA to find a track in the United States that better lends itself to the spectacle that is F1 racing. They need a more balanced track. If I wanted to watch cars going fast in straight lines, I would watch an IRL race, or even NASCAR, but I don’t care about that kind of racing. I want to see cars slicing and dicing through tight corners and high speed arcs, not flying down a straight road.

The governing body of Formula 1 (F1), the FIA, has prescribed a roadmap for engine development in F1 that would have the teams use smaller engines running on bio-fuels in the 2010 racing season. This was decided as a result of the FIA’s decision to have the research and development of the F1 teams provide a more direct impact on the automotive industry. F1 teams have enormous development budgets, if even a small percentage of this is spent helping to increase fuel mileage, or alleviate the dependence on fossil fuels, then I am all for it.

Hopefully, this decision by the FIA will lead to some significant advancements in the automotive industry. I for one think that this is definitely the direction the FIA should be taking. In addition to these changes, I would like to see a few more changes to the rules that I think would benefit the driving public even more:

1. Decrease fuel cell size to a point where 4-5 pit stops would be required to get through a typical race with current fuel mileage ratios. This would help to increase the miles/km that the cars achieve in order to reduce the number of pit stops that a driver must make to get through a race.
2. Reinstate a number of the electronic assistance devices that have been removed from the cars. This would help the motoring public immensely by providing safer cars as a result of advancements in traction control.
3. Remove the mandate of the use of the V-8 engine configuration, but keep the displacement restrictions in place. By allowing the teams to use any engine configuration imaginable they would be using their enormous development budgets to figure out which engine they can squeeze the most power out of.
4. Allow hybrid technologies in F1 racing! Notice that I said “allow” not mandate. If an F1 team can develop a car that performs better while utilizing some hybrid technologies, then why not allow it? If they decide that storing energy from regenerative braking is worth the extra weight of a dual drive system and batteries, then why not let them do it?

Every dream that I have ever had about winning the lottery has culminated in me owning and racing in a Gran Touring racing series such as the FIA GT3 series. I have seen a number of GT races throughout the years and they are awesome! I love watching cars that, if I had enough money, I could go buy and race myself. What sets the FIA GT3 series apart from the GT races I have seen in the past is the makes and models of cars that race in the FIA GT3 series, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and Porsche to name a few. While I have seen many of these cars in the various races I have seen, they have not been as prevalent as they are in the FIA GT3 series.

For a little FIA GT3 eye candy, check out this gallery from the Bucharest race in May 2007, courtesy of Autoblog.

Oh how I enjoy Formula One. I am not an insane fanatic of sports. I enjoy Football (U.S.A. style) and racing, especially F1. I also watch basketball, soccer, rugby, and a few other sports as well. I typically do not plan my life around any sporting events though. I will, however, record an interesting football game occasional. The one sport that I will plan my Sunday around is F1. So, if you have nothing to do on Sunday, watch the Grand Prix du Canada, I know I will.

I just watched the Grand Prix de Monaco, and I can’t get over how amazing those cars are. They are quite simply the absolute apex of automotive engineering. I find it hard to believe that man is able to engineer a machine that is capable of going as fast as these cars go and for as long. They traveled a total of 260.5km (162 miles) in 1 hour and 45 minutes. That works out to an average speed of 148kph or 92mph. The engines in these cars are 3.0 liter V-10’s that operate at up to 20,000rpm. Now compare this with the average car that operates around 5,000rpm and you can see that these engines revolve an amazing four times faster. The cars produce so much downforce at speed that they would literally be able to drive on the ceiling of a tunnel. Absolutely amazing!

One criticism that I have of Formula 1, and of racing in general, is that there is little emphasis on fuel economy. The FIA (the governing body for F1) has made a number of rule changes coming into the 2005 season, but none of them are aimed at improving fuel economy. The current generation of F1 cars gets, at best, .66 liters per kilometer (3.5 miles per gallon). Now, I am not a proponent of radical rule changes altering the nature of F1 racing, but I would like to see some minor changes to help improve fuel economy. I look at most forms of racing as, first, a very exciting sport but then as a testbed for automotive development. F1 has been absolutely instrumental in advancing the safety of vehicles, increasing horsepower, advancing aerodynamics and improving handling. The budgets of the top F1 teams probably equal budgets of most major automakers. I think it is time, especially considering the current strain on oil reserves, for F1 to pour some development money into improving fuel economy.