[rice_classic]

I really don't like the idea of punishing or handi-capping the successful teams/drivers in a series like this.

In a production car series it's a little different since you're working within an already created chassis/design but in F1 it's "blank page development" to a specific rule set. Those that do it best should be allowed to dominate even if that bores the hell out of the fans.

I think they should focus on rules that limit downforce and increase mechanical grip. When aero is a lesser factor and mechanical grip is a greater factor the delta between teams is narrower, the racing is better and it's more a driver's sport as opposed to an engineer's sport.

Aero could easily be capped with a simple "go" in the wind tunnel at a given air speed. Every car submits a computer model of their aero packages to be tested in CFD (Computational fluid dynamics). If a team is physically protested then the FIA can take a real world car and test it in a real world wind tunnel and measure the given downforce to make sure it doesn't exceed the "cap". That's just a thought.

But then again... F' all that. I want to see F1 go back to being pure badass development platform especially regarding engines. Give the teams a cap on energy/tires/aero and then say... have at it.

Cap aero with total downforce that can be produced at 150mph
Cap tire by doing what they are doing now: spec tire with multiple compounds
Cap energy by limiting teams to consuming a specified number of BTU's (or some form of unit of energy).

Open engine design and fuel. You can run all electric, diesel, turbo, hybrid, hydrogen... you name it.. but you can only use the specified allocation of units of energy for the race. Now THAT would have a great deal of "relevance" to the market IMHO.