As when's a Haas Not a Ferrari copy?
By now, Y'all have most certainly heard the
Bellyaching over this year's Haas VF-18 being a virtual copy of last year's
Ferrari, which is what Fernando Alonso deemed it recently Down Under', noting
it was a replica of la Scuderia's SF70H.
While the most vocal critics have been the
rival Force India F1 Team, which I'd say was somewhat to legitimate intent,
especially since Thar' one of the few, if only? Remaining true Bonified Minnowesqe
Formula 1 Constructors continuously struggling to stay afloat.
But the issue of Chassis Cloning isn't new,
since this nefarious subject keeps rearing its Ugly Head, which I thought had
died down after the initial Haas Schism in 2015.
Since although Haas hasn't broken any rules
by the letter of the "Law," i.e.; FIA's current Regulations,
nonetheless for Mwah, Haas isn't a true Constructor in the sense of the spirit
of the Sport. Which entails each team constructing its own, entire chassis by
itself.
As this cozy parts sharing arrangement
between Dallara, Ferrari and Haas seems to be leading to a virtual Mudslide
down the Slippery Slope towards Customer
Chassis, which always leads to consolidation inevitably Spec Series racing, a
la Indy Cars.
That said, it would be nice to see Formula
One's Car Count increase, to a healthy, robust 24 cars competing, or Hell,
reaching the FIA's current ceiling of 13 Bonafied F1 Teams with 26 cars taking
the green flag; Err lights on a regular basis.
Which is why I find toto Wolff's latest comments a
little bit perplexing, albeit I suppose I can see this as a slight towards the
rumoured Cost Capping of the Future, Eh?
