Enlarge / Red Bull aerodynamics genius Adrian Newey designed this F1 car of the future for Gran Turismo, but I have an even more radical idea for the sport. (credit: Sony)

Ever since Liberty Media bought Formula 1, it has been working on plans to improve the sport. There is a lot for it to do; during its tenure as owner of the sport, vulture fund CVC Capital Partners had no interest other than sucking as much cash out each year as possible. Some of the problems are structural, like the extremely inequitable financial situation that rewards some teams (like Ferrari and Red Bull) more for just showing up than others could possibly earn through race results. Other problems also involve money—more specifically, how to cut the costs involved without diluting the sport’s essence. And some are a question of physics, like how to improve the quality of the actual racing.

Let’s leave aside the thorny issue of revenue sharing and focus on the technical issues, specifically, the proposed technical changes to the cars for the 2021 season.

Cheaper engines, simpler aerodynamics

We’ve known for a while that F1 wants to significantly cut the cost and complexity of F1 engines as well as make them sound better. This would happen by dropping one of the two hybrid systems currently employed on an F1 car: in this case, the MGU-H (Motor Generator Unit-Heat), which alternately captures waste energy from the V6’s turbocharger or uses stored energy to spin the turbine. Unlike the other hybrid system (called an MGU-K for Kinetic), MGU-Hs are ludicrously expensive to develop and have zero road relevance.