When should Mercedes pull out of F1?

[revrange]

rdjohn said:

Jasandjules said:

I hope they remain for a while at least and can use some of the F1 developments in their road cars.

Dreaming, sorry.

F1 technology is completely unaffordable, even in small production road cars. Driving round a circuit where the same things are repeated lap after lap is completely different from driving between A&B in variable traffic conditions. Race engines are developed around full throttle conditions, road cars have to meet pollution regulations.

This is so wrong, half the technology has come from developments in the road car area to help Mercedes.

Put it this way, some car manufactures spend £38m a day on R&D, in the context developing an F1 engine is small beer.

Yes the driving conditions are different but lessons learnt on cylinder design, recovery etc can all be useful for engineers on road cars.

[TeamLH]

F1i recently reported that, Mercedes and Ferrari disagree with Red Bull boss Christian Horner over the latter's claims that consensus over cost-effective engine regulations is still far off.

Both Mercedes and Ferrari wants current hybrid V6

[StevieBee]

rdjohn said:

Does it make Greens think F1 is environmentally friendly? Absolutely not, the goal post has moved from 5mpg to 7.5mpg at enormous cost to both the competitors and the spectacle.

The engines are immensely clever in execution, but worthless in terms of saving the planet.

Planet saving is not and has never been the primary motivator behind this tech. The wider perception is that it is and this belief serves the manufacturers well as the mass market is becoming increasingly motivated by 'green tech' in making buying decisions so the car companies don't exactly clamour to correct perception and in some cases, use this as a key marketing message.

The driver is resource efficiency; creating more for less; propelling a car with the same or more power using less fuel. Emission reductions are an unintended benefit.

F1 has been carbon neutral since before anyone knew what this is and practices a great many pro-eco activities (tyre recycling, oil recycling, etc.) If this were a primary motivator, they'd be screaming much louder about it.