Max Mosley to Formula One: Cut Costs, Fuel, and Spark Interest!

Yesterday Max Mosley posted an open letter to all Formula One teams on the FIA website asking for more cost-cutting measures be taken in the sport. The main issues he brought up were, but not limited to:

• Reduce costs
• More energy and less fuel to be used
• Improve the spectacle of racing

I may not agree with everything that Max Mosley says, but I have defended him for some of the things he's done, even though I did so on the basis of privacy as opposed to values.

This week, I agree with what Mosley says about the sport of Formula One. The first two points he brought up go hand in hand.

The price to build two cars, staff them, drive them, fix them, program, and fuel them up is huge! Obviously, sponsorship in the sport is also very expensive and as my colleague and friend, Alex Levy, once said, "Sponsors are queuing up their (McLaren's) alley to put their name all over the car's livery."

McLaren are one team, and with an international star like Lewis Hamilton, who wouldn't want to be associated with them?

But what about the smaller teams like Force India and the now defunct Super Aguri? When looking at the sponsorship of oil companies, neither of them have or had this type sponsor while the top three teams of Ferrari, McLaren, and BMW have Shell, Mobil 1, and Petronas, respectively.

These three teams can afford to burn fuel but the smaller teams will have to budget themselves accordingly in order to save money and spend it on developing the car and paying to have it shipped to the distant locales that Formula One goes to.

Additionally, in this environmentally conscious period saving fuel is paramount, at least that's what we're told. The average Formula One car burns about 72 litres per 100 km, but is considered to be 20 percent more efficient than a road car because of the energy it expends.

The rules in Formula One also state that the fuels used in the car have to be commercially available, but that tweaking the mixture is okay in order to boost performance. Nothing wrong with that, at least from the perspective of someone who is not a chemical engineer.

But you won't change anything if you stick with the status quo, right? Why not allow the teams, at least the ones with oil sponsors, to try out alternative and "green" fuels?

Oil companies tell us that they're running out of oil, so why not try other sources of fuel and put it in the F1 cars you sponsor to test it out? What do they have to lose?

Overall, I think that in the department of fuel, the rules should be stated differently. Fuels should be available commercially, but if there is a change in the formula, it should at least be done in a manner that would make it affordable to buy commercially.

Improve the spectacle of racing, as Mosley puts it, is a no-brainer. Last year, the driver who took pole position had a 65 percent chance of winning a grand prix. When you look at a motorsport series in which aerodynamics play a small role, the likelihood of winning is smaller.

Many people see a grand prix as one long parade of very fancy sports cars with hardly any overtaking happening. That's a fair assumption to make, and one that I can agree with every now and then.

Overall, the sport does need to be improved for the sake of viability, and for the sake of an environment that we are told is deteriorating rapidly. Cut costs, be more efficient, and make the sport more watchable and exciting for the guy who tunes in every once in a while.