So my kid and I were talking about this yesterday. I could be wrong but if you went to, for example, NA V10s running on the latest cutting edge alternative fuels with no ERS, would we not see the following benefits?
- significant weight savings, enabling F1 to have ...
- smaller cars because of the reduced need for crazy amounts of DF to offset the weight
- more nimble cars in and out of slower corners, without the ridiculous, uncatchable snaps of oversteer
- great-sounding cars again
- a 'green' sustainability effort in the form of alternative fuel and thermal efficiency research, which could be easily marketed and potentially beneficial to the world
Seems to me like such a move could fix a lot of what's wrong with F1 these days. Even if you stayed with turbo V6s rather than V10s, the sound would still be better than it is now and the other benefits would remain as well, esp if you lose fuel flow limits. You lose 55kg right off the bat by cutting the ERS. And then there's the ERS cooling. Dunno how much that weighs. Cutting the turbo is probably pretty significant as well, but I dunno how much the turbo and all of its related accessories and piping weigh. You could also get rid of about another 50kg if you bring back refueling and drop the fuel limits. Just sayin'.