Back in 1950, there were little difference between Formula 1 and IndyCar. The same cars and engines could participate in both events, Indy500 was part of F1 calendar, the same racers raced in both events simultaneously. Graham Hill even won the so-called Triple Crown of auto racing but winning in Monaco, Indianapolis and 24 hours of Le Mans.
Nowadays cars that participate in these events are vastly different from each other. Racers rarely switch between these series and racing in both in the same year is all but impossible. How did that happen.
Surely there is logistics and costs and so on. However, Formula 1 is a global event that until recently completely overlooked the US, despite racing in even more remote Australia and South Africa.
There was one event in history of Formula one that shaped the series as they were.
Different Tracks
First a little bit of history. Back in 1950s series were pretty much one and the same, there was one difference between the tracks they raced on. In the US most tracks were speedways or ovals, while in Europe most of them were much narrow road courses. Even specially build tracks in Europe often used some existing roads. Natural boundaries such as hills, forests, rivers and lakes also played their part. Europe in general much more congested and build up than the US so there is not that much space to build perfect ovals like there is in the US that has Great Plains.
Because of that racers and teams in Europe were presented with a unique challenge: narrow turns. Turns on speedways are wide enough to turn at full speed. On narrow street circuits not so, one has to break heavily to make a turn. That of course wastes a lot of speed and time. If only there was a way to break less. That way one can go a lot faster and win. Until 1968 that was just a theory, then finally one racer had an idea: wings.
Wings to Turn Faster
If a plane uses wings to fly, there is whole aerodynamics science that studies how it works. However, if you put wings upside-down on a car, will it push it to the ground instead and allow you to turn faster than without them. Turns out yes.
Team Lotus trialed that in 1968 and won the championship. Wings indeed allowed cars to turn at much faster speeds without losing the car to the centrifugal forces.
Soon all other teams followed the suit and introduced their own wings and spoilers to stay competitive. FIA banned mounting wings on suspension, but not wings in general. The new way of racing went ahead.
Tobacco Money
Creating an idea is one thing, but perfecting it is another. Plane builders had factories and large research and development departments to perfect their plane designs. All these costs a lot of money. How an amateur sport, such as F1 could get their hands on such money.
The solution came in the same year by a private racer who pained his car in cigarettes inspired livery for money from tobacco company. Seeing this, Colin Chapman immediately figured where to get the money he needs and in the very next race his Team Lotus was sporting the Golden Leaf livery and Colin was happily counting money it brough him.
That was a legal loophole for cigarettes manufacturers. Governments were increasingly banning all tobacco advertisement, trying to reduce smoking levels. However, while laws forbade, tobacco billboards or TV commercials, they said nothing of Formula 1 cars, painted in tobacco liveries.
So, Colin Chapman knew tobacco companies will pay him millions to have him display a moving cigarettes billboard for two hours straight on Sunday prime time TV. Unlike commercials, where people often walk away from TV, to do other thigs, here they will be paying attention for full 2 hours. Tobacco companies knew these will sure pay for themselves in increased sales.
Other teams soon followed the suit and by 1970s all cars with exception of Ferrari were painted in one of the other cigarette brands. Ferrari had enough money because Enzo Ferrari founded his sports car manufacturing business of the same name just to afford racing in F1. It was profitable enough to cover all the expenses. Each Ferrari costs a fortune and rich people can't get enough of them. After his death however, new management immediately partnered with Marlboro.
Governments could not do anything. Sure, they could mandate the teams remove the ads if the race is on their soil, but Formula 1 is so conveniently international event, and many countries will allow the ads just to have a race on their soil.
Thus, a tobacco field, high money era of Formula 1 begun.
Engineers' Race
Armed with high money, F1 teams hired plenty of engineers and set up their own research and development department, that had all the equipment and technology of military jets designers just to build the best possible racing car.
That however took them a while to actually perfect the designs. Cars of the 1970s all looked very gimmicky, but also very different from each other. Each team tried their best to make the best possible design in the previously unexplored field. Breakthrough often came from unexpected places. New and obscure team could suddenly win the championship with revolutionary design, that no one have thought of before that.
That made racing unpredictable. Everyone waited for the new seasons to see what everyone has come up with. It was interesting from both engineering and purely entertainment perspective.
Exotic designs of this era included a 6-wheel Tyrell as well as Brabham's fan-car with a literal huge fans in the bottom and back of the car.
On the cusp between 70s and 80s Colin Chapman eventually went beyond wings. He and his engineers figured that you could use vacuum to keep cars on track even steepest of turns. So called ground effect.
Concerned that g-forces in F1 getting closer and beyond those experienced by actual fighter jet pilots, FIA banned ground effects, by car floors to be flat, but F1 teams eventually went around it by using diffusers.
Eventually they even developed a special training program for F1 pilots so that they can withstand the g-forces.
Designs became somewhat less outlandish by 1980s, but by that time engineers found other ways to make cars even faster. Exotic materials, such as carbon fibre, now ubiquitous in F1. Revolutionary engine designs, such as Renaut turbo charger. Even literal rocket fuel.
Because of that 1980s era was even more entertaining than 1970. There were times when Senna battles Prost. Surely, they were good racers, but they also had Adrian Newey (who now works for Red Bull) to come up with innovative ideas to keep McLaren on top.
Finally, 1990s brought electronics in Formula 1. As much as FIA kept banning them, teams keep inventing new innovative ways of getting even faster.
Fully automated computerized Willaims suspension allowed their cars to drive over steep side curbs like over flat track, maximizing their speed in turns. Willams was undefeated in 1993 before FIA made them part with this innovation.
However, progress could not be stopped. Computers were increasingly used to perfect every aspect of F1 cars. Bans were nothing more than stumbling blocks that did not prevent innovation. F1 cars were getting more and more advanced by the day.
Meanwhile in IndyCar
Nothing of sorts of going around in IndyCar. People there occasionally looked across the pond to copy some fancy designs. However, they did not want to copy any technical innovation. So, their cars only looked like F1, inside they were pretty much made of the same basic materials as before.
Team Penske once used advanced F1 technology in 1994 Indy500 and won by a huge margin. However, organizers banned them from doing this in future.
In fact, they made effort to make sure all cars are of the same basic design. IndyCar was not a competition of engineers, but only of racers.
However, without technical innovations, cars that run at the same speed and even tracks that do not offer much challenge to racers, would not everyone just floor it and finish the track at the same basic speed.
To keep people engaged, organizers turned towards more generic methods of keeping people entertained. Colorful characters, racers from various global background, pre-race entertainment and so on.
To make races even more unpredictable, they used safety car library to simply get cars closer together and encourage overtaking.
All that made races more eventful but less meritocratic.
In F1 you win because your engineers better at designing cars or your races are better at racing in complex conditions. In IndyCar you win because of luck or even organizers insertions.
Sure, there were some scandals with race fixing in F1, but people involved were banned from F1. Fans of F1 do believe their sport is a fair as boxing where the best win and not as staged as another US invention, WWF wrestling.
It is sure looks impressive when WWF fighters break chairs off each other's backs, but in an actual fight that will result in crippling injuries for participants. The fact that it does not happen in WWF proves that all fights are staged, and winners are predetermined in advance.
That is of course fake racing and fake show, and we (F1) are better than this. Our races are real ones without any fixed outcomes. That is what keeps F1 fans from believing in F1. A finnicky criteria that is hard to replicate.
End of Technical Innovation and Tobacco Money
Back to F1 innovation. Over the course of 70s, 80s and 90s F1 teams kept innovating and in 2000s eventually managed to build a perfect car.
Early 2000s cars were indeed close to perfection. Not even the most advanced computers could come up with anything even more advanced or fast. There were couple of innovations in the 2000s, such as Renaut nose stabilizer that was borrowed from skyscraper design and won Alonso his two titles. There was also Brawn GP double diffusor, but that was more of a creative interpretation of rules and not actual new idea.
To make matters even worse, the government finally caught with tobacco industry. More and more nations globally would ban any tobacco ads, including the ones on F1 cars. European Union directive to ban tobacco ads throughout the whole EU was the last straw. Tobacco companies mostly quit the sport in 2005. Former F1 Supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, called end of tobacco sponsorship a Black Day for Formula 1.
Some more savvy, like Eddie Jordan or Paul Stoddart also called it a quits and sold their teams to people who had money to run them without tobacco sponsorship. Indian businessman, Lakshmi Mittal and Red Bull energy drinks manufacturer took over as managers of these teams. Jordan first became Force India, then Racing Point and now Aston Martin. Lakshmi Mittal in turn sold the team to Lawerance Stroll when he run out of money or patience to run it. Other also sold off or went bankrupt. The last independent stalwart was Frank Willams who managed to scrap it together somehow until 2020, using his famed name to keep his Willaims team afloat.
Car Manufacturers Era
Formula 1 however continued without tobacco money. It was mostly car manufacturers who stepped it. Red Bull energy drinks, who also joined at the time was an exception.
Overtime F1 managed to build a reputation for car manufacturing excellence and car makers from all over the world wanted to be part of this. After all what can advertise your cars better than winning F1. Not to mention the whole moving billboard for two hours on Sunday TV prime time, an ad space that suddenly got cheaper due to tobacco's exit.
However, tobacco companies only needed branding and did not care about running the whole show, giving team owners and organizers free reign over their sport. Car makers instead wanted to control teams directly.
There were also differences between how races themselves are run.
While tobacco companies were fine with crashes and other such events. That only increase popularity with fans and in turn increased their brand exposure. Car makers did not think the same, for them crashes showcase their cars as unreliable and dangerous, which is bad for business.
A boring race where guy on famous car maker branded car, such as Mercedes, leads from start to finish makes for best advertisement for Mercedes manufacturer, Daimler Benz. It showcases Mercedes as fasters than all competition and very reliable car. Daimler Benz paid a lot of money into their works team, managed by Toto Woulf and want that kind of results.
However, that is bad for viewers and competition. Tobacco companies' interests were a lot more aligned with fans than those of car manufacturers.
To make matters worse, car makers do not have as deep pockets and would like to limit their expenses on F1. Introducing cost caps and other such measures.
Dependency on Engine Suppliers
However, the worst offence, car makers make against the sport is their exploitation of engine supplier position.
Engine suppliers, such as Mercedes, who supply their engines to other teams in addition to their own works team, have a conflict of interests. If they give their clients as good engines as they give to their works team, then they might win and that will present their works team as not as fast as some dubious upstart.
The solution is to simply give them subpar engines to make sure they will never be a challenge to the works team. There could be other measures too, where pressing some button will simply shut off one of the client cars to let works team win.
Client teams have no choice but to accept these conditions or have no engine for their car at all. McLaren went to great length to free themselves of this toxic partnership with Mercedes by switching to Honda and Renaut. However, the alternative engines were even slower that crippled Mercedes one and McLaren begrudgingly returned to them.
Aston Martin and Willians are on the same boat on this one as they also use Mercedes engines. Haas and Alfa Romeo have the same problem, just a different oppressive overlord, in their case Ferrari.
That is why when Honda decided to quit F1, Red Bull bought out their entire factory and their research and development department. They spend a lot of money to keep this independent engine making ability to not become as dependent on Mercedes or Ferrari like the others.
That is also why F1 desperately needs more engine manufacturers to join the sport and finally put an end to domination of big three. Finally, we see some improvements in that department.
Conclusion
New engine manufacturers can bring more traditional style competition between engineers, in this case engine manufacturers. That is what F1 fans want.
However, a technical limit of innovation might have been reached. In 2010s they tried to artificial stimulate the research by making dubious changes to the rules simply for the sake of formelting new research to design a car to new specification. The result were ugly looking cars, like those of 2012 season.
Surely it will be good if F1 manages to find ways to innovate that will take their cars even closer to being spaceships on wheels. However, it might as well be that F1 will need to take pages from IndyCar playbook to stay entertaining.
I sure hope F1 will have good future ahead of it.
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