Pitpass currently has an excellent article on the ownership and finances of F1. If you want to worry about the future of the sport rather than accept Bernie's bland assurances that all is well, go have a read.
Dodgy diffuser doing its job - the Williams FW31
Personally, I find all that a bit depressing and would rather consider the strange position of the FIA on the diffuser issue, as outlined by Negative Camber on Formula 1 Blog. We learned yesterday that the Brawn BGP 001 is one of the cars included in Flavio Briatore's list of illegal exploiters of the rules on diffusers, the others being Williams and Toyota. Charlie Whiting has had a look at the offending diffusers, mumbled something to himself and wandered off, and Mosley has opined that they are legal but the FIA could change its mind if the diffusers are protested in Melbourne.
Wonderful, isn't it? The body that writes the rules is incapable of giving a clear decision and leaves it open for yet another furore to break out in the first race of the season. This is unfair to both the teams who have been clever enough to design a diffuser that sticks to the letter of the law, if not its spirit (and who decides what that spirit is?), and so risk seeing their ingenuity cancelled out, while the other teams have no idea whether they should be devoting some of their greatly reduced budgets to the design of similar diffusers.
It is not a way for the governing body of an international sport to behave. If the rule is unclear, it should have been re-written as soon as it became apparent that its intent had been circumvented by certain designers. The last thing F1 needs is yet another upset like the movable floors controversy of 2007; enthusiasts are still debating whether Kimi's win should stand since it was achieved in a car that could be regarded as illegal.
It is too late now for the rule to be amended. The FIA should stand by their present opinion and allow the diffusers to be used this year. If, on reflection, they decide that the workaround is not what they want in the sport, let them ban it at the end of the season. That is fairest of all, allowing the innovating teams to benefit from the time and money spent on their idea and requiring only that the other teams follow their lead if they think the diffusers give sufficient performance increase to be worth it.
And that is the key; do the diffusers make that much difference? Perhaps it is ironic that Piquet Jnr in the Renault is currently setting times very close to the best that the Brawn GP has managed so far today; Alonso would almost certainly do better still. So what is the beef, Flav? Your car is looking pretty competitive without the fancy diffuser so why not just race and see who wins? Be annoyed, if you will, that a few engineers have beaten yours to the punch for once but, for pete's sake, let's not have any protests in Melbourne, please.