The main problem with Formula One car racing is that it believes its own publicity. And it make itself ridiculous by doing so. Whereas, in years gone by, F1 drivers were seen as playboys, matadors and all-round crazy men, now they are seen as sanitised mouthpieces for slick PR companies. And whereas, the cars were seen as loose and dangerous, now they are merely slot cars, computer controlled and boring.
I haven’t watched a F1 race for years and I have no interest in doing so. Once I learned that the McLaren team had driven a car around a circuit in England years ago, controlling the car solely by telemetry, with no driver in the driving seat, I sort of started to lose interest. And once the cars’ aero sophistication reached the stage where the cars didn’t slide in the corners, that was it for me. I will only go back to watching F1 if they remove the wings and the ground effects, the flappy paddle gearboxes and all the electronic aids (oh, and go back to using big slicks and running races with no pit stops).
“But racing improves the breed,” the pundits say. Horse feathers. Racing improves racing and pays the salaries of thousands of nerds. That’s what it does.
There is a “trickle down” effect from racing, however. Tricks that have been tried in the fierce cauldron of competition usually have no relevance for Joe Motorist. Modified, watered-down versions of them often do find their way into Joe Motorist’s car years later. So, in that respect, racing can have some relevance.
The example of racing improving the breed that is always used is that of disk brakes. Up until Jaguar started using disk brakes on its sports/racing cars at Le Mans, the only application of disk brake technology was in aircraft where they had been used for years. It was in aviation that the concept was refined and perfected. Once adopted by the car makers it quickly spread and rapidly became universal.
So, are there any major engineering breakthroughs that can be attributed to F1 racing in recent decades? Yes, heaps of them. Traction control, launch control, flappy paddle gear changes, dual clutch technology and all manner of electronic wizardry. “Well, you just shot yourself in the foot,” someone is saying, “Because these racing developments HAVE improved the breed.”
But which breed? The breed that they have improved is high performance supercars and sports cars, neither of which Joe Motorist has any need or wish to drive on a daily basis. The “trickle down” effect of most of these innovations will pass by the average car altogether.
The major innovation of recent years in F1 has been KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System). Basically what happens is that, while the car is braking, the energy used to slow the car is electronically “saved” and then stored for when the electronics can convert it to power and have that power used in acceleration. Sounds simple, but, of course, it isn’t. Sounds useful, too, and in racing it is seemingly so. But does it have a relevance in day-to-day motoring? Mazda evidently thinks so and have installed a modified version of the system in their latest 6 series of cars and wagons. But how much power DO you need? Or is it, like so many other gizmos and gimmicks fitted to modern cars, a sop to the environmentalists and another “feature” that can make the car owner appear “green” and eco-friendly?
AND, is there a KERS in the motorcyclist’s future? Well, bikes are becoming increasingly electronically complex (just try and fix one by the side of the road if it breaks down and you will understand) so the electronic infrastructure is there, probably already. There is a weight consideration to be considered as the hardware required to implement the idea would inevitably add to overall weight and weight increases are bad. Is there a benefit to be had? Well, given that even a moderately-specced bike is capable of hosing the fastest supercar at the lights already, probably not.
However, be prepared for the increasing invasion of electronics, coming soon to a bike near you. Maybe not KERS, but other gimmicks and gee-gaws will come. Whether they will be of actual BENEFIT to you is, of course, the $64 question.