In the early 1930s MG had a slogan. 'Racing Improves The Breed'. It has been true of sports cars, but it has never applied to Grand Prix racing. The FIA's upcoming engine formula is designed to make Formula One more relevant to everyday motoring and it a view based on a myth.

The only rule change in the history of Formula One which has acknowledged the reality of everyday motoring was in 1958 when petrol was specified. It replaced the fuels based on alcohol, and additives such as nitromethane, which had been used by most teams. Even when petrol was made mandatory it could be up to 130 octanes, aviation fuel.

Later the rating was lowered so that cars now use regular four star, like you and I buy, as if. Oil from different sources varies in density and F1 suppliers refine the densest oil. It is technically pump fuel. That's Formula One.

In the pioneering days of motoring, competition helped customers choose between the hundreds of optimistic manufacturers. There were more than 500 makers in 1905 alone. The names of some early successful drivers give a clue since they included Louis Renault, Vicenzo Lancia and Henry Ford.

After The Great War Grand Prix racing entered a new phase. For a brief period, marques like Bugatti and Alfa Romeo made racing cars directly related to some of their road cars, but they made cars in tiny numbers. You could have a Bugatti T35 with a supercharger, or without.

The great machines produced by Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz in the late 1930s bore no resemblance to everyday motoring. Both companies were competing for German military contracts, the government subsidy accounted for only a tenth of their expenditure.

In the same period, cars accounted for about two per-cent of Alfa Romeo's turnover, Alfa made its money from aero engines.

Formula One has not contributed directly to everyday motoring, but endurance racing has. Le Mans has always had more relevance than open-wheeled racing.

In 2006, Audi became the first company to win Le Mans with a diesel engine and it has since made the race its own. In Europe, the diesel has gone from a chugging oil burner, best suited to taxis, to accomplished power units made by prestige marques.

Le Mans framed the rules to give diesel cars an edge and Audi responded with the input of, all people, Caterpillar, maker of hefty machinery. Nobody knows more about diesel engines than Caterpillar, but it is not a name you hear associated with Le Mans.

It is in endurance racing that relevant technical advances are being made. Toyota withdrew from F1, but made a strong showing at Le Mans this year. It is Le Mans which is encouraging 'green' power, which may benefit the everyday car owner, whereas the FIA is coming up with daft schemes like Formula E.

Apparently we will love Formula E because it is good for us. Nanny Todt is sure of that. I have had enough of authorities deciding what is good for me.

Remember the proposal that F1 cars should do pit stops powered only by the electric motor which is part of the KERS system? That was plain stupid, but it was proposed and considered. How to make the pitlane even more dangerous: make the cars silent.

The Audi which won Le Mans in 2013 was fitted exclusively with LED lights which were bright enough to cut a path at more than 200 mph at night. My government wants me to use toxic long-life light bulbs, mercury is rarely a good idea. We are assured that the low-energy bulbs are beneficial, but nobody ever mentions the carbon footprint of manufacturing and disposing of them, just like nobody mentions the carbon footprint of the batteries used in eco-friendly electric cars,

LED lighting is the future, as Audi has proved. Formula One and lights? We have floodlit races to fit TV schedules. How green is that?

Formula One has hardly ever pioneered an innovation of widespread practical use. Team Lotus (not Fake Lotus) came up with 'active suspension' which Williams made work, before it was banned. Active suspension was a cul-de-sac, just like four-wheel steering.

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1. Posted by Leo, 12/08/2013 10:54

"There is of course one technical development from F1 that has spread quite succesfully through the automotive industry: Ferrari's 1988 sequential gearbox. Robotised gearboxes are now available in many forms, from city cars to supercars.

And there are quite a few modern road cars with some form of DRS: automatically lowering of the ride height at higher speeds or closing louvres in the grille when engine cooling demands are low.

The (technical) relevance of F1 on the road car industry is harmed by the fact that the biggest gains can be found in the aerodynamics. Aero is much less important in the real world, because speeds are so much lower. On the other hand we do see in recent years that Cd (drag coefficient) of road cars are dropping again. In the early 80's this was a trend (Audi 100, Ford Sierra etc) but for a long time Cd values didn't come down anymore. Now they are again and Mercedes seems to be leading the trend (new S-class has a Cd of 0.23): maybe a bit of the F1-aero-knowledge is reaching Stuttgart?!"

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