Cost-cutting/parity in F1

[ZXRobert]

Greetings, folks. I'm getting back into F1 after a few year's absence; wooden wear planks, grooved tyres, and the like had seemingly done me in.

So, I start following casually last year and I see some new rules regarding qualifying, engine longevity, and other parity-enhancing "ideas". There's some of the same ol', of course...people going bonkers over a trivial contrivance with a catchy name; keels, in this case.

Now there's the red-tyre rule; all I can say is, "wow".

The thing that really saddens me is that when I followed F1 in the golden age (for me, anyway) of turbos, it really came off as an engineering exercise first, and entertainment second. Whether it was pneumatic valve actuation, active suspension, or Barnard's torsion spring front suspension on the Ferrari 639/640 (yeah, I'm dating myself here), these were the things you remembered.

But somewhere along the line (around the time of Senna's death and the aforementioned wooden planks and tyre situation, I suspect), F1 truly became a circus.

Now, I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth a bit, here. Yes, I think cost-cutting is a good thing. Limits on exotic materials and sophisticated driver's aids could/should be kept to a minimum, in my opinion. Simple, cheap, and effective ideas like McLaren's 2nd brake pedal (MP4-17?) should be encouraged, not banned; not a huge fan of traction control, but if it requires a new skill set from the driver to operate it, I'm all for it.

Where do you think it will all end? What will F1 be in 5 or 10 years? There's a massive integrity hit taking place in the sport, and it is painful to watch.