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The outside world has come crashing in on F1 in recent weeks. A global economic crisis and the extravagance of F1 don't sit comfortably together. So here comes Max Mosley, reinvigorated, seizing the moment to push through his long-held vision of F1 as little more than a spec formula. If F1 doesn't follow his vision, he implies, it will be dead by 2010. Maybe so. But F1 needs to be very careful at this crucial juncture that it doesn't throw the baby out with the cost-saving bath water. Costs do need to be cut urgently, and in the short term a measure of technical rationalisation will probably be the only way of doing this. But to extend that technical philosophy into a long term blueprint for F1 will surely kill it through lack of interest. Long term, lower spending levels do not - and should not - mean technical sterility. MotoGP bike racing has massively more technical diversity than F1 yet is vastly cheaper. Twenty years ago F1 featured full-on technical competition in engines, aerodynamics and tyres - for a fraction of the cost of the current much more technically restricted F1. The costs have been driven upwards purely by the commercial worth very wealthy entities have placed upon being in F1 during the boom years. Progressively restricting technology during that time has made absolutely zero impact upon costs; it has simply re-allocated them. The problem is that as the manufacturers drove the costs up, independent teams were unable to keep up and the very few that have survived are now in a parlous situation - and so, as a result, is F1. © 2020 Autosport
In the magazine: Wheldon the Lionheart In AUTOSPORT magazine this week, we reflect on the life of Dan Wheldon with those who knew him best, and remember the day, just a month before his death, when he showed off IndyCar's staircase of talent Mag 
MPH: Mark Hughes on... A law that invariably applies in racing: the genie will not go back into the bottle once released F1
MPH: Mark Hughes on... Competitors entering motorsport are getting ever-younger - but are even the youngest missing out on a crucial age in physiological development? F1
MPH: Mark Hughes on... So, team orders failed to secure the world championship for Fernando Alonso. But neither he, nor the Ferrari team, can function happily – or truly effectively – any other way F1
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