I have heard numerous rave reviews about the most exciting season ever in F1 and the only thing I find stimulating is that Jenson Button has at last found a car to match his much underused talents.

Already the season is mired in controversy and it’s only race three, this isn’t motor racing, this is a joke. The racing is percieved to be exciting by the uninformed because the FIA are manipulating and micro managing every possible circumstance to artificially create a level playing field.

Take the tyres, firstly we have the ludicrous situation where teams are compelled to use different compounds of tyre; fine you may think, that makes sense unless the precise compound of tyre is prescribed by, no, not the people who should know, Bridgestone, but by the FIA, tyres deemed by Renault to be only useful for 8 laps of Shanghai. Furthermore, with no in season testing, how can teams be expected to improve the cars performance other than simply chucking money at new parts tested on the cars during practise, qualy and the race. Which teams can afford that level of resource I wonder?

Then there is qualifying, for no good reason we are having to tolerate stupid, restrictive fuel level controls but we’re still in the situation where the lightest car on the grid qualifys second, what is the difference between that and allowing the cars to run what they want? Are our grids any different than they were when we allowed teams to fuel the cars as they want? light for qualifying and then run what fuel strategy they want for the race; by all means publish the race weights but the current situation is over complicated and simply implemented so the bureaucrats can play at management and justify their ego inflated existence.

Talking rubbish am I? how about cars out of the top ten being allowed to use what level of fuel they want to enhance their strategy, how on earth does that enhance the sport or even make the playing field moderately level, half way through the season we will have competitive McLarens and Renaults (Ferrari’s are another matter) so if Alonso or Hamilton have a pants qualy session they are allowed a fuel strategy that provides them considerable advantages over the other cars from eleventh down.

And then there is KERS, is it any coincidence that the teams running the technology from year one are the wealthiest in the paddock. The watchword for 2009 was ‘cost saving’ (OK its two words) yet they are imposing a costly technology on teams to aid overtaking despie the yanks kicking ‘push to pass’ overboost into touch years ago. And what really amuses me is that the teams with the money to afford KERS are allowed to carry 30Kg extra weight and given 80bhp more for the privilege. The poorer teams are, however (and please correct me if I’m wrong here) given a 30Kg weight penalty (to make up for not gaining an 80bhp advantage from fitting KERS) and everyone cites moveable ballast as the compensation. How idiotic does the FIA think the public is?

How about driver aids, I see the teams now have special soft rubber steering wheel cases for when the cars come into the garages and the wheel is removed. The wheels are so expensive because of all the electronics on them it would be a major disaster if one were dropped, we’re soon going to get to the situation where drivers don’t care about a number one or number two car, they will be taking their number one steering wheel to bed with them. Evidently Lewis Hamilton familiarises himself with the wheel by practising with it concealed in a bag. I watched the Clark documentary the other night where his method of driving faster was to concentrate harder on the rudiments of driving, changing gear properly, using the throttle better, steering more accurately etc. “then I went faster without trying”. His steering wheel didn’t even have MoMo on it!

On another forum I proposed scrapping downforce altogether to save money, increase safety and add to the racing spectacle. I was lambasted by every ‘expert’ on the site. Every one of them claimed it wasn’t possible, it would be more dangerous, cars would take off, we would be going back 40 years and F3 cars would be quicker. Then I watched the documentary on Jackie Stewart and was mesmerised watching him drift his Tyrrell through corners. The car had wings but they were of the 1970′s type, looked good but probably didn’t do much. I watched his steel suspension wishbones move as they had to deal with road irregularities, but now we have carbon fibre wishbones, Ayrton Senna was killed by one, remember? and so they tethered the wheels to the chassis in the event of an accident but someone lost a wheel in Shanghai, was anything said? did the FIA instigate a safety inquiry? No, they continued their pathetic withchunt into someone who lied about a recorded conversation.

I don’t want the bad old days of the 70′s back, and we don’t need them but something has to be done to liberate F1 or we will lose it forever as audiences dwindle and even we ‘knowledgeable’ hardcore abandon it for more credible alternatives.

F1 is about design freedom, its quite simple really, the ability to go round a given piece of tarmac as quickly as humanly possible using whatever technology is available. OK, the drivers demand safety, quite rightly, so cars are well built and tracks have Armcos and gravel traps.

The last recession (80/90′s for those of us that don’t remember) decimated the grid and taught us to save cost, then we ignored the lesson and cost went into orbit so engine development was restricted and V10′s were the order of the day, but diffusers and flat floor technology wasn’t the be all and end all so downforce went the same way as costs, ballistic. But nothing changed, it was still Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and the occasional minnow that won races. More expense, more regulations, and technology to overcome the regulations, and now were squabbling about someone in F1 telling lies! a distraction from more regulations?……No, surely not!