Death of No-Limits Engineering?
By Mark Devlin
November 5, 2009 -- Formula One. First thing that comes to mind is Monaco—a dream of a race in a dream of a place. The circuits. The names. Jimmy Clark. Jackie Stewart. Mario Andretti. Michael Schumacher. Great names of great racers in what is likely the highest-adrenaline, sharpest-focus form of sport on the planet. Even as a NASCAR fan, it’s impossible to set aside the importance and magnitude of F1. Unfortunately, here in the states, the only way we can even watch an F1 race is to stay up Saturday night in order to catch live coverage at an insanely early hour on a peaceful Sunday morning. Most people, including yours truly, won’t do that. (Except for Monaco.)
NASCAR is cool. The competition, especially compared to F1, is tight and often edge-of-your-seat—sometimes with a dozen cars in the space of four seconds at 180+ mph. You’ll rarely if ever find competition of that level in F1. Unfortunately, the spectacle that is F1 typically includes one—or, maybe three—cars that simply walk away from the rest of the field. Not the greatest thing to watch. Think making lefts is boring? Watch a not-too-old video of Michael Schumacher cruising around Silverstone with a day-and-a-half lead.
That said, it’s a sport that should be exciting even to watch on television. Insane levels of horsepower from relatively small and very lightweight powerplants. Shrieking, bone-chilling 20,000 rpm blasts of sheer engineering greatness. Engines idling at near-NASCAR competition rpm levels.
Also, while I’m a NASCAR fan, I’m not a proponent of NASCAR’s basic technologies. Pushrods, live axles, truck arms, and lug nuts—while the teams and engineers have made those elements work better than anyone in any era could have ever imagined—just can’t compare technologically to F1’s computer-controlled valvetrains, aerodynamic efforts at least somewhat comparable to those going into fighter planes, and live, real-time telemetry being sent to and analyzed in-race back in Japan. It’s tough to get cooler, real-world tech than that applied in F1.
Soon, however, there may be no one on the other end of the telemetry. There may be no automakers left working with the best and brightest team engineers. Without that development, there may be no F1.
It didn’t take long after the first signs of global economic meltdown for Honda to see the handwriting on the Wall Street and pull out of Formula One. They said, in view of the economic crisis, that they needed to focus on their core business. While 700 jobs were lost in the UK alone—from that single gesture of Honda leaving F1—let’s face it: Race teams represent an insignificant part of national job markets. (Though, here in The South, a similar NASCAR meltdown could leave many thousands out of work.)
How much is a carmaker saving by pulling out of F1? According to some estimates, as noted in this article, for example, Honda ran up a yearly F1 tab of $500 million. What was once, according to that article, a situation in which Honda was willing to throw “a trillion yen” at the possibility of an F1 championship win has now become an operating expense that’s just too great.
BMW is gone.
Renault is considering leaving the sport, according to this article.
Shockingly, news just hit the wires that Toyota is out, too, “after posting its worst financial loss.”
Just a couple of days ago, tire maker Bridgestone pulled out.
I’m really surprised that no one else seems to think that the F1 sky is falling.
In the sixties, even here in the U.S.—in events from drag racing to NASCAR—auto manufacturers loved to participate. Their involvement was worth every dime, and then some. “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday,” they said. For a long time, that worked.
There are many elements to the potential high-speed crash that is today’s F1. Job loss is one of them, yes. But what about related economies? A whole world of television, promotion, sponsorship- and advertising efforts costing in the hundreds of millions will simply evaporate.
I wonder, though, if we’re on the road to losing something much more important: real-world, no-limits research and development. State of the art, world-class engineering efforts that—realistically—have ended up in many elements of many vehicles that we drive every day. Safety, power, weight savings, materials, fuel-saving aerodynamics, and many other technologies that go unnoticed or underappreciated in our everyday automotive lives trickled down from F1.
It’s one thing to design and simulate. It’s another thing to prototype. It’s yet another thing to test on engine stands and streets. It’s relatively easy to hot climate-test. It’s something completely different, however—incomparable levels of magnitude greater—to design, build, test, and thrash components at unimaginable limits all year long in the quest of a Sunday win or championship trophy.
Forget the Detroit Three and bailouts for a moment.
Could the engineering world—and the vehicles in out driveways and garages--possibly be as good in the future without F1?