The Futures Bright?

Last Friday, the FIA and FOTA came to an agreement on cost-cutting measures. It’s funny how when staring down the barrel of a gun can suddenly turns people who would draw this out till we are dust and bones into agreeable parties.

As for the changes, honestly, the jury is out for me.

In-season testing has been banned, with the sport taking a page out of Nascar’s book. The American series confirmed their own testing ban a few weeks ago in an effort to kerb costs. On the bright side, it should ensure that there will be plenty more action on a Friday for spectators to watch, given this will be their own test time.

On the flip side, I am concerned. What happens if one team gets a significant jump on the others? It has happened in the past and the only way they were reeled back in was via working hard on the testing front. That option is now eliminated. Will the sport resort to weight ballast like touring cars if this sort of situation crops up?

The engine unit must now last an additional race, meaning that we will see the same motor used for three races. Each driver has eight engines for the season, with four additional ones for testing. No mention of what happens if someone actually goes over that limit. Do they sit out the rest of the season? Granted, reliability has been quite good in recent years, but you have to ask.

For 2010, refuelling will be banned. Now this, I have some major concern with. Over the past decade, fuel loads have played an important part in grand prix racing. If your opponent is faster than you on track, you short-fill and hope you can pump in those fast laps to build sufficient gap. Tail-enders depend on heavy loads to try to bring them into play late in the race.

All this is now eliminated. Providing a driver doesn’t have an issue, there is no need to worry about someone throwing an exciting spanner into the works now. Does this mean we should know the results after the first few laps of the race?

With no fuel and longer equipment lives to watch out for, I am worried that the sport will become one of who can take care of their equipment best – not who is the fastest of them all.

The KERS system will not be mandatory for next year, although many will probably run with it. McLaren and Ferrari had expressed fears about the cost of it, but given that it will be mandatory for 2010, I’d expect everyone to make an effort to bolt it on. Whatever about costs, the end of the day one doesn’t want to be lagging behind in the development of it.

The standard engine issue remains an option, if only to have one cheaply available to the independent teams. This is a great way to make both sides happy. Standardised gearboxes and the sharing of information has also been talked about for 2010.

As for the proposed medal system, that is reportedly going to be put to the public, where I personally hope it gets shot down. It is a gimmick idea we just don’t need for the sport.

All this, on top of the technical changes for the coming season. It is a lot to take in.