[jyl]

I don't think F1 can be completely unlimited.

I read a very good book on F1 technology, by a former Lotus F1 designer, and it convinced me that a completely unlimited F1 would, by now, have resulted in:
- >2,000HP <750LB four-wheel-drive cars;
- dynamic software-controlled wings and ground effects, including vertical steering surfaces, all adjusting every 1/100 second via to-the-millimeter track maps, internal accelerometers and differential GPS
- dynamic software -controlled suspension, also adjusting via track maps, accelerometers and GPS;
- software-controlled drivetrain and braking;
- electronic traction/antilock/stability control.

The driver wouldn't have to hit precise braking points, as software would choose the exact point to start braking and independently modulate at each wheel. Similarly the driver wouldn't need to pick the exact time to apply throttle, as software would do that as well.

The driver's main job would be to survive, as the car would be pulling 5-7 peak lateral g's, rapidly slamming the driver right and left, backward and forward, like a punching bag. He would be in a fighter pilot-style g-suit with his head and limbs strapped to supports, struggling to stay conscious enough to steer the car (assuming humans were still allowed to handle the steering).

The cars would be outrageously fast - a 1:15 lap today would be something like a 0:30. It would look like a 1/24 scale slot car race, or maybe like a HO scale slot car race with traction magnets. But when something unexpected did happen, it would occur faster than human reaction time. Cars would collide, disintegrate, and spray shrapnel and body parts into the crowd, in the blink of an eye.

Kinda cool, in a Rollerball sort of way, but not auto racing as we know it. It would be sort of Battle of The Software Programmers, with a human along to raise the stakes.