> Seems wild that they can code and deploy an update of a critical-seeming component in the field like that. I thought such a firmware update would need extensive QA in the lab, along with root causing why this bug slipped through their processes anyway.
These cars are in a perpetual Q&A state, they are getting modified between races. That's true for the "big teams", small teams don't have the resources, they're just "happy to be there". That's why it's possible to see stories like Brawn GP[^1]. That's what makes the sport fascinating, because the overtakes are not as much as one would hope for a ~2-3 hours race. But every little thing counts. In the last race 1st and 2nd had ~103ms diff or something like that for example, which is something that didn't happen for 15-20 years (maybe more).
> That's true for the "big teams", small teams don't have the resources, they're just "happy to be there".
This isn't really the case anymore. There's a budget cap, and all of the teams are financially sound most of the time. While the poorer teams might bring fewer upgrades in a year, they still bring upgrades all year long, and R&D is a continuous process in every F1 factory these days. Smaller teams also get additional R&D, compute, and testing time compared to the big teams.
Actually there is a budget cap so small teams have the same resources of big teams. However big teams have an advantage. They assembled a better team and a better network. This is from the team principal of Williams, one of the teams at the bottom of the rankings https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/cost-cap-creating-two-tie...
Article you linked is absolutely unreadable. Just rambling „cost cap is not bad, we have sustainable sport but smaller teams are worse off”.
Two important informations are buried like „now smaller teams take podium 5% of time instead of of 10%” and „cost cap administration is a burden” and they there are no clear guidelines on what is in the cap and what not.
> Actually there is a budget cap so small teams have the same resources of big teams.
Not really. The budget cap does not include the salaries of active drivers and the three highest paid non-driver employees, as well as some other odds and ends.
The link you shared says clearly that budget cap made things worse, with data apparently. But they don't think it's the wrong move, it's the right move but doesn't work in the current form.
In most major league sports in the US, there is some form of salary cap, but it really only applies to players. Organizations can spend money on other things as they wish. That applies to coaching, front office, facilities, etc.
Players are the most important asset in most sports, especially the ones without tools. All forms of football and I think every game played with a ball shared with the opponents. I assume that all pro players of tennis, golf, cricket, baseball use tools of about the same quality.
In motorsport and in Formula 1 not so much. If a team has a dominant car, let's say half a second faster than the second best, the championship is an internal matter between its drivers. Any second tier driver sitting in one of those two cars can be world champion. The only opponent is the team mate. So most of the money goes into the car.
The Formula 1 cost cap applies to all expenses with few exceptions. Most notably drivers and the (3?) highest paid employees. Of course you must keep the bosses happy, right? Drivers could become subject to the cap in one of the next years. They won't be happy but what can they do? Furthermore teams will always find somebody to drive their cars even at one tenth of what they are paying now.
The 103ms difference is also due to a software glitch, Russell (the winner) said his car wasn't boosting in the final straight at the last lap, Verstappen (P2) was catching him with an energy boost. And the glitch was probably because there was a yellow flag, because a driver (Bottas) crashed, because his car didn't behave like the previous laps and sent him into the barriers...
I've watched F1 for more than 2 decades, from the paragraph above I realize this year's F1 is basically comparable to AI slop...
I agree. You can watch a lot of the old races on various YT channels and also in the F1 app (assuming you pay for it). There are some great races but most are pretty predicable for the big teams with the money, baring any random engine blow-ups.
The real issue is the cars are just too big and heavy. There was a point in time when you could pass someone even in Monaco.
These cars are in a perpetual Q&A state, they are getting modified between races. That's true for the "big teams", small teams don't have the resources, they're just "happy to be there". That's why it's possible to see stories like Brawn GP[^1]. That's what makes the sport fascinating, because the overtakes are not as much as one would hope for a ~2-3 hours race. But every little thing counts. In the last race 1st and 2nd had ~103ms diff or something like that for example, which is something that didn't happen for 15-20 years (maybe more).
[^1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd3miTpvUmI