Hyundai to enter F1 in 2010

[G.Irish]

The difference with F1 and WRC is that F1 features more fundamental innovations and science. Because of this it takes a bit longer for stuff to get applied to production cars. So it might be 5 to 10+ years before something can be practically applied to street cars except in cases of supercars where you can afford to put expensive stuff on there (exhibit A: Ferrari's e-diff).

There is a huge list of technology that has come from F1 that would probably take a long time to catalog but off the top of my head...

*the monocoque chassis
*variable valve timing (some forms)
*active suspension
*ground effects
*diamond like coatings
*variable geometry turbos
*traction control
*ABS
*carbon/ceramic brakes
*electronic fuel injection
*sequential manual gearboxes

And of course the fundamental advances in tire technology, composite materials, metallurgy, chassis design, suspension, computer simulation, and aerodynamics/CFD.

Maybe for the benefits realized Formula 1 is too expensive and certainly some of the innovations that first came in F1 would have eventually come sooner or later. But there's no doubt that competition drives innovation and that a great deal of value has been realized from Formula 1 technological development.

Of course competition is a double-edged sword because when one or more teams spends more than everyone else, it usually raises the cost for everybody. The unabated arms race tends to escalate to a point where a bunch of teams drop out, then the spending drops, then teams get back in and it starts all over again.

I think the trick is in how a manufacturer uses F1 (or WRC or Le Mans for that matter). If the team does not share employees and resources with the production side of the factory they are not maximizing the value from F1. I know for a fact that Honda engineers rotate between the various racing programs and production roles and I'm pretty sure Ferrari and BMW do this as well. And all of the higher up executives at Honda came through the racing programs

If F1's sole value was technology development and the manufacturers had to pay 100% out of pocket for it I think the price would be too great. But with money from sponsor deals as well as TV revenue the financials look a bit better and there's the marketing value of doing well in Formula 1. Unfortunately, only 2 or 3 teams do well in F1 at any given time so everyone else doesn't get to realize the full marketing value.

Going into some of the new regulations in F1 I think maybe Le Mans will be a better place for continuing automotive innovation. There we've seen a lot of new stuff in the last few years with alternative fuels and diesel tech. I wouldn't be surprised to see some teams leave F1 for Le Mans in the next 5-10 years.

Of course, I think the only reason Le Mans is relatively cheap right now is because there's only one manufacturer competing there. As open as the rules are I think one could easily spend near what is being spent in F1 if the heavy hitters joined the party.