Has the desire to 'save' money disappeared then?
/QUOTE]
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hat's precisely what strikes me as so hypocritical about the choice of measures taken to save costs in F1.
Engine freeze and near-absence of in-season testing? So that the smaller teams badly in need of sponsorship have no chance of catching once they fall behind?
Pretty much the other side of the coin, and in my humble view a much bigger factor to inequality among teams than the potential for bigger teams to increase their advantage during a season because of unlimited development.
Very simple fact is, there are now less teams in F1 than there were 20 years or so ago in the days of unlimited testing. The world's economy back then was in recession in the early nineties too, so backers were no more plentiful then either.
That's enough to make me think that current and currently-proposed cost-cutting exercises in F1 are are purely PR-orientated and are doing absolutely nothing even the playing field or attract new teams, and in fact quite the opposite.
Still, I'm sure Bernie can go and seek to run some other Grand Prix on the other sideof the world where grandstand single tickets are worth 12 months' wages to any of the locals and tell everyone how F1 is perfect for that venue because its government pay for it all and so on...
