Evolutionary machines: The Difference Engine: Darwin on the track | The Economist

WHILE watching the finale of the Formula One grand-prix season on television last weekend, your correspondent could not help thinking how Darwinian motor racing has become. Each year, the FIA, the international motor sport’s governing body, sets new design rules in a bid to slow the cars down, so as to increase the amount of overtaking during a race—and thereby make the event more interesting to spectators and television viewers alike. The aim, of course, is to keep the admission and television fees rolling in. Over the course of a season, Formula One racing attracts a bigger audience around the world than any other sport.




Yet, each time the FIA mandates some draconian new rule change—whether the introduction of non-slick tyres, narrower aerodynamic wings or a smaller engine size—the leading teams have invariably trumped the restriction a few races into the season. And the cars fielded by the wealthier teams, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop, are then going faster than ever. Once again, races become a tedious high-speed procession which, barring an accident or mechanical failure, all but guarantees that the pole-sitter (the fastest in qualifying) leads, lap after lap, to the chequered flag.

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Evolutionary machines: The Difference Engine: Darwin on the track | The Economist

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