Originally Posted by bentheswift,Jun 9 2009, 02:42 PM

I can't say I'm sad to see them go. The problem was not that they were too heavy or complicated (though anyone familiar with Mr. Murphy and his laws knows that adding complexity is just an opportunity for more things to break), the problem was that they were heavily regulated. 80 horsepower boost for 8 seconds... why not allow teams to store as much energy as they want, instead of only 8 seconds worth per lap? Then the regenerative braking and energy storage technologies will be developed (for performance instead of merely lightness, since every team is already making 80hp for 8 seconds per lap) and race cars will be relevant to the real world again. And, there would be different strategies available for going fast, because a heavy KERS system might be able to make 80hp throughout the lap, but would weigh, 40, 80, 100lbs more than the lighter, less powerful cars. But that would be too expensive, says Max Mosley. God forbid we make the engineers compete with eachother! And to think that is what half of F1 used to be about.

Probably 95% of what is known about cars comes directly from race car testing and development. As an engineer, that makes today's situation in F1 downright depressing.