Max Mosley's Comments on F1

Mas Mosley has made some comments on Formula One that need to be addressed.

Thanks to Autosport.com for the quotes.

In a letter sent to team principals last week, Mosley said it made 'no sense' for so much of the sport's finances to be spent on improving cars when it added nothing to the sport's spectacle.

Well, is F1 a spectacle, or a race? If it is a race, then it makes sense to spend whatever it takes to win. F1 traditionally has been about racing and winning the race. If you want a spectacle, look to NASCAR or GP2.

His frustrations have been fuelled by the fact that cost-cutting measures introduced by the FIA - including parc ferme restrictions and long-life engines - have done little to dissuade teams from spending money.

It was easily apparent that the long-life engines were not going to save any money. Teams just took the money that used to go to replacing engines and spent it on making them reliable. There used to be engine failures all the time, now it is rare for a team to lose a motor.

"Formula One's vast profits are currently being wasted on pointless exercises for the private entertainment of the teams' engineers," said Mosley in a document that was attached to the letter.

No, I believe they are spending all that money to win races. Races won equals more cars sold for manufactures, and more constructors dollars and sponsorship dollars for everyone.

"It makes absolutely no sense to spend large sums on items which do not add to the entertainment, indeed often detract from it.

The only reason the the "entertainment" is lacking is because of the rules. If wings were mad illegal, cars would have no problem passing. And as for spending large amounts of money, well, is it a race or a show?

"Therefore all items on the cars which are not known, visible and understood by the public should be standardised and manufactured at minimal cost.
"The technical contest should be limited to items which are visible, understood and potentially useful - eg KERS. (emphasis in the original)

KERS stand for Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems. How many people understand that? And of those who do, I am pretty sure they would understand most of the current technology that they are not "supposed" to. There are already spec formulas out there, e.g. NASCAR (for the most part), GP2.