Mad Max 3

It seems that Max is back on one of his hobby horses again. He'still advocating the idea of swapping drivers between teams, and getting each driver to race a car from each manufacturer.

I can actually see the point in this, because it means that the driver with the best car does not necessarily win, There would be complications obviously, and it doesn't seem to fit in with the spirit of F1, and that's what puzzles me.

Max seems to want a championship that puts the emphasis back on the driver, but the proposals that are going through for 2008 don't appear to do this. And by introducing fixed spec tyres, he's establishing the validity of freezing development of at least part of the car.

Which is why I find it hard to understand why Max isn't limiting aero progress. Wind tunnels run with three teams of people, 24 hours a day analyzing small changes. Limit the flexibility of those changes and a manufacturer can rent out the wind tunnel to road car or aircraft manufacturers and make the aero dept change from cost-center to profit-center.

And gearboxes - manual ones please, with a clutch that you press. No auto, or semi-auto boxes so that the driver really has to drive the car, not just point and squirt.

Now here's an idea for you Max; by all means have a drivers championship, where they swap cars. Why not make it into a support for the Grands Prix race. I'm sure that the GP2 teams or F3 squads would welcome some extra income. And the crowds at the racetrack deserve to be entertained, and an extra race like this would do just that.