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- Even the smallest F1 teams may employ more engineers than all the F2 teams combined. This is a worry for the future for, with doors increasingly closing to junior race engineers, the sport may find a dearth of them in future. Formula E, too, relies on specification chassis, and while the challenge is on for electrical boffins, the chassis side is all but closed to development. Again, Dallara has that contract.
It is hardly coincidental that specification chassis began flourishing at the start of the ‘commercial rights era’ – no sooner had Bernie Ecclestone and his merry co-team owners wrestled commercial control of F1 away from the FIA during the early eighties, than they devised F3000 as an outlet for their unused Cosworth 3.0 DFVs, made redundant by the switch to turbo engines.
As time progressed, so the commercial rights holder grasped the revenue opportunities presented by a monopoly on specification series cars, with the aftermarket proving even more lucrative. Not even those washers are free…