I have a dream. Bernie will be barred from any further involvement in F1, motor racing, sports or entertainment management or ownership in a plea deal to keep himself out of prison for the rest of his life. To pass the time in his enforced retirement he will write an autobiography spilling the real dirt from over the years to replace the fluff piece written by Susan Watkins.
CVC capital will continue down the path of screwing ever last cent out of the tracks and selling Grand Prix rights to the highest bidder. After the success of the Russian race, Azerbaijan gets its race then South Korea wants in. So for a bargain deal costing North Korea only $100 Billion per year to be paid with international food aid for lying about giving up its nuclear program, it will get to host an event in Pyongyang with the Ryugyong Hotel as the back drop. Following that Somalia ups it’s pirating program to make a bid for its own race while Afghanistan provides free poppy seeds to all farmers to raise money with the slogan ‘Racing with opium’.
As this continues first Spa, then Suzuka get edged off the list. Monza only survives when the Mafia has a little chat with the board of directors from CVC and Prince Albert is getting tired of the bad press associated with CVC. Meanwhile the BRDC is looking nervously at its 17 year contract to host the British GP.
While this is happening Marussia gets sold to Hass, who runs it with some success for three years until he too is bled dry and closes up shop. Caterham, Lotus and Sauber fold while Force India only survives by combining forces with Williams. This leaves only six teams on the grid which is reduced to five when Red Bull pulls the plug on Toro Rosso. In a futile bid to keep grids up teams are allowed to wield first thee then four cars each which even then leads to grids of only 20 cars and the results are always 4 Mercedes followed all 4 Red bulls, followed by the 4 McLarens followed by Alonso, 4 Williams and the last 3 Ferraris. A space is added to the Super License application form where the driver must fill out the number to a Swiss bank account containing at least $100m
Meanwhile over in the States, after Indy car adopts F1 style rules for re-starts, two out of three manufactures (Mercedes, Ferrari and Ford) will decide they want to re-enter Indy car as engine suppliers as it offers some excellent racing and is slowly pulling itself out of the quagmire that Tony berkeleying George set in motion with the IRL Cart split 20 years ago. With four engine manufactures now in the game Indy car continues to go from strength to strength as Caterham, Lotus and Sauber start teams. As the series continues to grow, the promised aero packages begin to open up until 2020 when the next generation car is announced. From then on Dallara will build a full car, but only the tub, brakes, steering, electronics, gearbox and mounting points need to be used. At this point McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari also join Indy car and petition for a worldwide series.
With the new popularity Indy Car starts a second concurrent series named ‘Indy world series’ with races starting in January down in Australia then moving on to Shanghai, Suzuka, Monza, Monaco, Clermont-Ferrand, Estoril, (pre Silverstone, Monza, Spa, Mosport, Elkhart Lake, Barber, Indy, Montreal, Mexico City, COTA and Sao Paulo, although not necessarily in that order. Buenos Aires, Zeltweg, Watkins Glen, Long Beach, Jarama and many others are fighting to get in on the action.
The Verizon IndyCar Series and the Indy World Series will run concurrently with only the Indy 500 counting for both series. This will prove so successful the last of the F1 drivers will jump ship and F1 as we know it will fold. CVC will go Bankrupt after race promoters sue them for breach of contract, but nothing ever goes to trial as the Tifosi and Mafia save the world the drama and expense, you can figure out how. The FIA will get shut down by the EU for tax fraud. The rights to the terms ‘Formula 1’ and ‘Grand Prix’ will be sold at auction. Coincidentally Christian Horner will be at the auction after being fired from Red Bull for not getting Vettle his seventh world championship, so he had some spare time on his hand. He will pick up the rights to F1 for the cost of a bag of chips and a pint. He will then sell the rights to Indy car for $100m and a seat on their board.
At this point the Indy World Series will be re-named Formula 1 again and the teams will start building their own chassis with common engine regs with Indy car to defray the costs. The rules will be written solely by Horner with no input from the teams, sponsors or automakers but designed such that a budget cap isn’t needed because there is an upper limit on what you can spend due to design and aero limitations. Race day tickets will be capped at $100 and future venues will be decided by democratic vote with equal weight going to the teams / engine manufacturers, the current and retired drivers and the fans in a blind ballot. Races will be limited to 18 per year. Test teams will be allowed on a specified schedule and there will be a Saturday race with the same spec cars for 3rd/4th drivers lasting 1 hour. There will be at least two tires suppliers with a maximum of two stops per race weather or tire damage accepted. DRS will be banned as down force will be limited to allow real passing again. Aero grip will be reduced; tires will be freeking huge and wings will appear larger, but be limited in elements, end plates dihedral etc. Braking distances will be longer.
