It is and it is not! It is a formula. The 13 inch wheel size is an example of where being a formula gets in the way of innovation. Plus the non-movable aero ru

It is and it is not! It is a formula. The 13 inch wheel size is an example of where being a formula gets in the way of innovation. Plus the non-movable aero rule. The rules are there to make it a sport with the drivers safe, close racing and the smaller teams not out-spent by the manufacturer teams. At the moment there is a lot going on for the 2021 season to fix the 'close racing' problem. The aero will be changed to throw the 'wake' up and over cars following the leader. At the moment any car wanting to overtake has to battle against a tide of messy air that has been disrupted by the car in front. The list of banned things is a list of technology that was not applied. Ten years ago Brawn F1 won with a 'double diffuser', 'spinner' wheel covers and a very different aero package than allowed today. They were bought out to become the Mercedes team. The Williams team brought along innovations that were tantamount to magic in the 1980's and 1990's. Active suspension appeared and was banned. On the same car there was traction control - now banned. We don't hear the term 'driver aids' any more but things taken for granted today such as a semi-automatic flappy paddle gearbox were not introduced easily to the sport. The engine is built to spec in F1. It has to have a certain amount of cylinders, the fuel rate is restricted as is the total fuel load. You would not be able to put a car together that didn't bother with the engine bit and had batteries to get through 200 miles of racing. The mystique surrounding F1 engineering is cool but sometimes it is best to not meet your heroes. If you go to a car meet such as at Goodwood you can see some fairly recent F1 cars and what is under the hood. Some of the engineering is quite shockingly primitive. There are reasons for this, for instance, if only having to get through a race and taking the car apart every weekend then bearings can be more basic than what you might find on a family mass market car. It is all a lot more bicycle workshop than NASA when you see these cars close up. This is not to deride what goes on, but, if engineering is bespoke, doesn't have to have customers fix it and only needs to last two hours of race distance then it has different production values. I think that Formula E on 'proper circuits' rather than city streets would be the apex of technology in sport. I am not alone in this, Formula E has more sponsors and the Formula 1 people that have jumped ship to it are not 'has beens'. F1 really is in danger of getting stuck in the slow lane with an elderly audience who can remember when F1 was shown 'free to air'.