> An announcer for an F1 race the other day said it cost about
> $14 million to
> build an F1 car versus about $150,000 for a NASCAR unit. I
> know there is a
> lot of difference in sophistication but that is a huge cost
> difference. Are
> the numbers close to being correct? /jmac
Well...
This opens a real can of worms...
Over the years I have tried to stay out of off topic discussions relating to
cars because it is a subject very near and dear to my heart.
On the subject of Formula 1 budgets. Toyota and Ferrari are "rumored" to spend
$400 million a year to field two cars. Top CART teams $10 to 15 Mil a year.
Jack Roush likely spend $15 mil on his five car team to do 30 or more races a
year.
A Formula 1 car no longer has very much in the way of adjustments by the time
it gets to the track. The Top Teams do extensive testing to get very close to
the right setup for a given track and then bring a range of parts that will
allow fine tuning for the conditions. For example the shock absorbers are not
adjustable without being completely rebuilt. This is all done to make every
part as light as possible. Formula 1 teams can no longer be competitive
without at least one 50% scale wind tunnel running full time and massive CDF
programs to minimise the iterations done in the tunnel. Even with the "so
called" cost reduction measures introduced this year, engine budgets can be 1/4
of the total. It is hard to come up with a valid arguement that justifies the
money in F1 and even harder to justify the non technical expenses, but the
Aviation industry is now learning (poaching) from the highest levels of F1
racing. The technology in a five year old F1 car is mind boggling
, Last year at the Monterey Historics, Ferrari brought a number of their older
F1 cars including the previous years championship winning car. This car
requires two engineers 2 1/2 hours and numerous subsystems to just get the car
started. For exapmle, all of the fluids (Engine Oil, Cooling system, gear oil
etc) needs to be brought up to operating temp before the engine can be turned
over for starting. When the electronics "act up" the first thing they do is
replace the steering wheel. Find a pic on the web some where and you will
begin to see what I am talking about.
So this long winded explanation brings me to the "Michlien" debacle at Indy.
What is undisputed is that Michlein really blew it in the worst way. From my
professional point of view, what they did borders on Cheating. They felt the
need to push the performance envelope out past the boundary of safety. What
happened after that is where the general discussion gets "emotional". So from
here on out, what you get is my very biased opinion.
I think that most of the people who think that a Chicane was the obvious way to
solve Michleins problem don't understand the restrictive nature of car setup in
F1. Secondly you cannot take out the single most significant feature of the
track the morning of the race. It would be far more dangerous than the
original tire problem. Since the original problem was not Bridgestones fault
(they brought the proper tire for the conditions) it would not be fair to
penalize them in any way. According to the rules the only possible solutions
would be for Bridgestone to supply the other teams with tires but due to the
limitation of the cars it would be as bad as the chicane option even if the
contractual requirements would have allowed it. As many have stated before the
Fans are the ones who got screwed in this fiasco but that is mostly due to the
level of technology and the legal webs that bind the sport together at this
point in time. On top of all of this there is a game of politi
cs going on that rivals any on the planet. As I mentioned earlier, the money
involved at this level of auto racing is well into the billions just at the
Team level not including the commercial rights and marketing money that can
make or break many countries. Arguements such as, He should have done this...
Ferrari didn't want that... are all just emotional crap. Formula 1 is just
not that simple. The absolute worst thing I saw waws the Fans at Indy throwing
stuff on the track. I thought that would be beneath even the most brain
damaged NASCAR fan. The guys that were on the track deserve better even if you
don't agree with the circumstances that caused it all.
For those of you that bothered to read this far I thank you. I will try to
refrain from a similar outburst for another five years, but don't bet on it if
the topic comes up again.
Mike Butler
Dublin, California
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