Why doesnt F1 just control fuel consumption
I've just finished doing some reading on the hisory of F1. And i came away with one thought. Instead of finding contrived ways to reduce speed, why not just limit the amount of fuel a team can use.
This would force teams to reduce the amount of energy used during a race by
a) more efficient engines (less HP)
b) more efficient tires (less grip)
c) less drag (less wing)
reducing fuel consumption seemed to work well for reducing power in cars during the 70's.
The one thing is you would have to limit pit stops, or just set a minimum fuel capacity, so teams were'nt just building monsters and stopping for gas every few laps, then sprinting ahead.
It also seems like this would provide the most value added for vehicle manufacturers, as HP/L in F1 is pretty much rediculous and can't have much transfer to road cars. As well as outside of a few supercars and more and more performance cars, downforce is not as important as drag coefficient.
This would also open up the way for stored energy (hybrids) to be further developed in racing situations.
and theres a simple way to keep the speeds down in future years, just reduce the allowed fuel per race, and teams will be forced to give up more wing, tire and HP in order to last the race.
The one major problem i can think of is that some teams would really try to push their fuel stints even further, and fans may react negatively to their favorite driver retireing because he ran out of gas. Perhaps a pit penalty (like a stop/start) could be enacted for going over the alloted fuel,
1 sec / 4l etc
Tell me what you think of it. I just think this could provide a better avenue for technical gains in F1 to benefit the participants more through selling that proprietary know-how to road car manufacturers.
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