twinkle_toes22:

gpringsx:

i do not think car companys need f1 to develop new technologies and they know this,they just do it for publicity,if that was the case every car company would be in f1,if toyota,bmw,honda come back to f1,it won't be just to develop things for road cars,i never thought that was the first reason car companies got into f1,and i don't think it is as important as it is made out to be,most new automotive tecnologies are done without f1

I think there is a certain amount of truth in what you say, however the point I was trying to make is that the speed with which you can develop technology in general is far quicker in F1 than most companies can manage on their own (there is of course always the risk of public failure)

ABS, active suspension, traction control, turbo charge technology all developed to a massively high degree in F1 and passed on down to road cars and other vehicles, not to mention engine mapping and electronics technologies, fuel development, systems management, data logging and telemetry. a lot of these technologies would have taken years longer to be developed outside of F1 or maybe even not at all. Its a fantastic opportunity (if expensive) But youre right in so much as most fans dont know much about this stuff until its actually on their car and even then don't care how its been developed. I'm not sure many manufacturers would want to spend 500 million per year purely as an advertising excercise.

There is a huge amount of truth in what you say. However, over the past five years or so the FIA has sought to reduce the technological development of the cars. Just look at what they have banned, ABS, Traction Control, limited engine electronics, active suspension, semi-automatic gearboxes etc. My road car has more technology than F1 cars of today. F1 is rapidly becoming the same as TGP, there needs to be a freeing up of the technology that can be used or there will be a different formula that will take it's place. You cannot stop progress, you need to embrace it.