Despite the major North American professional sports leagues generating many billions of dollars in revenue every season, it’s surprising how parity and equality between teams is a fundamental concept compared to many of their European counterparts.
From player drafts that offer the worst performing teams the first choice at signing the most promising young talent to salary caps intended to stop teams hoarding the best players simply by having the biggest budgets, sporting parity is a cornerstone of these leagues. Meaning that when teams achieve repeated success over a sustained period of time, it’s because they are truly the best of the best.For most of its existence, however, Formula 1 has been anything but equal. Not only do the cars themselves vary widely in performance from team to team, but the budgets, factories, resources, prize money and political power of each team have traditionally been worlds apart between the front and rear of the F1 field.
But in the Liberty Media era, the sport has undergone a drastic fundamental change. Since 2021, all ten teams have been restricted by a budget cap that limits their total expenditure across all racing and development activities – with some exemptions. However, as well as restricting teams’ spending, another crucial new element has been the introduction of aerodynamic testing restrictions (ATR).
Like the NFL draft, ATR is a parity measure that applies to teams based on their performance in the championship. Each of the ten teams receives a different allowance for the volume of wind tunnel testing time and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations they can run depending on their position in the championship.
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The idea was to provide more opportunities for those further down the order to work their way into more competitive positions. Four seasons into ATR being active, the 2024 season is the most competitive for many years with four teams and seven separate drivers having won a grand prix over the first 14 rounds of the championship. But have these restrictions been a positive element to introduce into the world championship?
For
Looking at how competitive the field is, with multiple teams in contention to fight for victories each grand prix weekend, it’s clear that the ATR has enhanced the racing in Formula 1.
Now, teams at the top of the standings have to be smart an efficient in how they approach their development and testing time and can no longer throw money and resources at a problem to fix it.
This has forced teams to be more resourceful and given opportunities for smaller teams to compete on a more level playing field, which is a good thing for the sport.
Against
The concept of aerodynamic testing restrictions goes against much of the fundamental concept of Formula 1 as an engineering competition between constructors.
By handicapping the best teams in limiting how much work they can do on developing parts of their cars, it is inherently artificial. Would Red Bull be facing this much competition if they weren’t being limited in their aero testing compared to all of their rivals?
From Williams to McLaren to Ferrari to Red Bull – teams have naturally risen and fallen over the years without any need for artificial restrictions placed on them. That means ATR is unnecessary.
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I say
There is nothing worse in professional sport than teams who have the best resources and the biggest budgets remaining untouchable at the very top of their leagues largely because they just have more than their rivals do.
Soccer is the poster child for this. Man City have won the last four Premier League titles and been victorious in six of the last seven seasons. Real Madrid and Barcelona hold La Liga effectively hostage. And in Germany, Bayer Leverkusen only just managed to snap Bayern Munich’s 11-season streak as champions this season. An utterly absurd lack of competition and parity for a sport that somehow manages to remain the most popular in the world.
Unlike the World Endurance Championship and its Balance of Performance element that its teams are forbidden from even daring to question publicly, ATR is a much better and much more acceptable means of trying to generate increased competition in the sport. Applying based purely on championship position is a fair approach and means that if Red Bull do lose the top spot in the championship, they will receive a boost in their efforts to try and catch back up again.
But more importantly, it is finally breaking the negative feedback loop for smaller and lower teams that became almost impossible to escape in decades by where a lack of success would only make it harder for teams to achieve the better results they needed to climb back up the field again. Now, they get a chance to fight back – not a fast track up the field by any means.
For these reasons, Formula 1 is largely better off for having ATR than it would be without it.
You say
Do you believe ATR has had a positive or negative impact on Formula 1 since its introduction in 2021?
Do you agree that the introduction of aerodynamic testing restrictions has had a positive impact on Formula 1?
- No opinion (4%)
- Strongly disagree (13%)
- Slightly disagree (4%)
- Neither agree nor disagree (3%)
- Slightly agree (36%)
- Strongly agree (40%)
Total Voters: 70

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Debates and polls
- How much F1 will you watch in another packed, 30-race season?
- Which F1 drivers will beat their team mates in 2025?
- Norris says 2024 showed he can win a championship. Are you convinced?
- Verstappen banned? Alpine sold? Which of these 2025 predictions will come true?
- Is F1 doing the right thing by overhauling car design rules again for 2026?
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
4th August 2024, 12:10
I was really pessimistic going into this season but it’s turning into a cracker. We’ve seen performance through swings and track specific improvements. This is really what the sport is about and it’s credit to testing restrictions and the cost cap.
Honestly, there are only 3 changes I’d make to the sport right now. I’d drop sprints, limit DRS to 10 applications per race regardless of zone or position and make the calendar 18 rounds. Imagine if this season China for example, we’d be talking about the bes
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
4th August 2024, 12:13
Best season ever.
Small updates to the officiousness of the stewards aside, I’ve enjoyed this season. This ultimately has been what fans have been looking for for years, 7 winners, 3 teams with both drivers winning and the only team who hasn’t had both drivers winning are the ones who we feared would win every race at the start of the year.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
4th August 2024, 13:11
2010 was much better than this season. Ironically the season right before Pirelli came into hamstring and slowdown the competition with it’s distructo tires. Now it has it to a science and the cars are tiptoeing around trying not to burn their tires up during qualifying or racing.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
4th August 2024, 18:13
I’m not sure about “much better”, particularly given we’re comparing a full season to the summer break. Post Belgium 2010 Hamilton led the championship by 31 points over the eventual winner Vettel and 41 over Alonso – so the championship battle really developed over Italy (Hamilton DNF), Singapore (Hamilton DNF, Webber contact) with a great close finish and an exciting Double DNF for Red Bull in Korea.
But at Belgium 2010 were the races to that point really that great Canada aside? There was championship battle contact (Istanbul versus Austria 24), teammate controversy (Germany versus Hungary 24), unreliability by a red bull resulting in a Ferrari win (Bahrain, Korea 2010, Australia 24). But most races were nowhere near as close as the last few races we’ve had with as many in contention and the outstanding memory of the title in 2010 was a lack of overtaking – so much so the sport felt it necessary to add DRS and Pirellis the next season.
Don’t get me wrong I love 2010 but let’s not write off this season. As I say if we look at it from China onwards, I’ve not got any complaints and it bodes well for the future.
JackL
4th August 2024, 19:31
2010 and 2024 are fundamentally very different seasons. 2010 had a lot of championship intrigue, with the drivers championship only settled at the final round, and five drivers(Hamilton, Button, Alonso, Webber, Vettel) capable of winning it throughout the year. The racing itself wasnt too great, with the exception of a few notable races. It was the drivers championship and the resultant effects on it that really kept everyone in it.
2024 is pretty boring from a drivers championship perspective, and its going to take an act of God for Max not to win it pretty comfortably. But the racing itself is much better.
But one crucial point is that its hard to say that the ATR has led to his. Its the third season of these rules, convergence was very likely, so its really hard to tease out how much of this convergence is because its the rules maturing, and how much is due to ATR. There’s no doubt that ATR has helped, but how much is hard to say.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
4th August 2024, 19:52
Yeah exactly, but the historical elements we romanticise are also present in 2024. A close championship battle could develop given Max has no cover from Checo and the McLarens and Mercedes look capable of regularly finishing ahead even after the Red Bull update. 2010 was great because all protagonists dropped unnecessary points – that’s true of most competitors aside from Max excluding Austria.
It’s always difficult to accurately judge what makes a great season or collection of seasons but the ATR is a contributing factor and I’m happy with the product we have.
Jere (@jerejj)
4th August 2024, 15:07
@rbalonso I’m perfectly okay with 24 rounds, sprints, & especially DRS usage application, not to mention DRS will get axed for good after next season anyway.
I don’t get the China reference, though.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
4th August 2024, 19:59
I think the sport’s oversaturated. 24 rounds and sprints almost guarantees we won’t get regular last race title battles which I think is a fundamental element of the sport. DRS usage can be quite depressing – too many midfield battles are DRS trains falling away from the main group which is creating a 2 tier formula, which is mundane and honestly unnecessary given we’ve have about 250 races with DRS.
The china reference is an arbitrary point 10 races ago. As part of the reduction of races I’d start the season earlier – there was almost no difference in performances in the opening rounds. More testing and a later start might have meant the 4 team battle was season long rather than a catch up season with predictable opening rounds.
Sham (@sham)
4th August 2024, 12:12
Slightly agree – I would think, and would have liked to have seen whether the cost cap could have achieved this on its own over the course of a few seasons before the ATR rules came in.
But, I think it’s a largely positive set of rules to have – and as said, it is much less artificial than most methods other sports use to even things out.
Mayrton
4th August 2024, 12:43
I guess it depends on what team you root for. Some are better to exploit aero and others in exploiting their ICE. Those are the two of the many knobs the FIA and Liberty Media can turn in an attempt to create a level playing field. One time some fans will scream blue murder, another time the others. I personally feel they should focus on weight and size reduction so we can get rid of artificial gimmickry like drs.
And overall what is far more important is to learn not to change the regulations too often. We see time and again that divergence takes time and as soon as we reach a decent level of it, the rules are changed again and 1 or more teams gain a competitive advantage creating easy victories for some and frustration for others. So far little learning has taken place from this recurring situation.
Witan (@witan)
4th August 2024, 13:06
I agree. By 2021 there was considerable convergence and the rules were changes to not scattering the competitiveness around but almost like magic putting one team in a dominant position again.
They should leave well alone and change regulations when there is a clear benefit. The pressure in recent years has been from manufacturers who want more relevance to road cars. I understand that but not at the cost of real competitive racing.
Mayrton
6th August 2024, 7:42
Hence my objections against factory teams. There is no place in this sport for car manufacturers. They should just be allowed to deliver a power unit. They can’t handle sports competition from a political standpoint. It becomes a mess. Too much at stake. Too many board room characters watching along, too many financial stakeholders. No heart.
Coventry Climax
5th August 2024, 10:43
But what if you don’t root for a specific team or even driver at all, then what? Cause that’s the case with me.
Every time the FiA turns the engine or aero ‘knobs’, as you call them, it simply makes me cringe. Another aspect of fair sports down the drain.
And there’s a couple more knobs they are constantly tweaking and turning, by means of the rules, the technical directives (effectively rules changing during the season) and the ever ongoing farce regarding the stewardry and post race car checks.
It’s not a matter of creating an equal playing ground at all. The playing ground is equal when there’s a fixed set of rules, with a fixed way of stewardry and checks, with every contestant always knowing beforehand what to expect.
Instead things are constantly changed and manipulated – and we all know why and whatfor.
All F1 is about now, is show. Creating controversy and talk and legal disputes and arguments and clicks etc etc.
New competitors aren’t even allowed in anymore, for fear they take a piece of the cake.
It’s become a complete farce, as far as I’m concerned.
I’m not rooting for any team or driver, I’m in mourning for all of them.
Coventry Climax
5th August 2024, 10:54
Equality can be achieved with any set of rules, and actually, even with no rules at all, all it takes is things to be the same for everyone.
Currently, thanks to the FiA and likely the pressure from Liberty, things are only getting worse in that respect.
Mayrton
6th August 2024, 7:39
I couldn’t agree more.
notagrumpyfan
4th August 2024, 13:52
Reviewing this at a higher level; F1 first needs to decide what it wants to be when it grows up.
Most American sports are franchises. In those cases the sport is more important than the individual teams. Then the teams and the sport (mostly same owners) are mostly focused on growing the sport overall.
In most competitions in other countries it’s an open competition between teams with promotion and demotion. In such situations the teams are primarily focused on growing themselves, and very limited on growing the sport.
F1 is half pregnant, and doesn’t really know what it wants to be. FOM would prefer for it to be a franchise (however without wanting to share all ownership with the teams); FIA thinks it’s an open competition fair to all (they even think they can join the Olympics); and the teams only think about themselves choosing either FOM’s side or FIA’s whatever suits them best in the short term.
ATR can work for as franchise type sport, but not if you have a truly open competition.
A (functioning) budget cap can work for both.
BamBoomBots
4th August 2024, 14:32
The current season is quite interesting, but the main thing that interested me in F1 has always been the aerodynamic and engineering competition between the teams as it is well known that the driver plays a relatively small (but not negligible!) part in the resulting race performance.
With the current rules and regulations resulting in either less development or at the very least, much less visible development, my interest in the sport has pretty much evaporated. I think I’ve watched one race this season so far and by now I’m confronted by a ‘oh yeah, there’s a race going on now’ thought while I’m outside on a Sunday now.
I don’t know how to feel about it. I used to love F1 but I just can’t be that bothered by it anymore. The most interesting parts for me are less important now in the competition and the ever increasing media juice circus around every paddock-fart is making it more and more draining to follow.
I hope F1 one day invests more in genuine entertainment by opening up the highly prescriptive regulations while ensuring the teams have more or less the same resources at their disposal. But I have a feeling there’s too much money and politics going on for that to happen I’m afraid.
DEfusion (@defusion)
4th August 2024, 14:35
It’s hard to tell, I voted slightly disagree. If you look back over the past couple of decades where F1 has been in a cycle of 5-6 years then massive rules shift the same thing always happens; 1 team dominates out of the gate and the other catch up.
This might be a slightly more competitive situation to previous cycles and that might be due to these rule changes.
But it seems, from a long term fan’s perspective, that F1 has failed to recognise this cycle.
There of course could be other factors that contribute to this, like teams splitting resources between current and next sets of regulations. But my understanding is that other than engines they can’t really develop for ‘26 yet.
I’d love to see race fans do a dive into the data around these big rule changes, comparing average winning gaps, number of different teams who had wins and the fan ratings of races. But I’ve seen the cycle so many times it’s hard to see that we’re in for a classic season (and probably another next year) and then feel that with everything changing in ‘26 that one team will get it more right than the others and dominate again.
Jere (@jerejj)
4th August 2024, 15:05
I’ve been perfectly fine with ATR, & ultimately felt ‘slightly agree’ is the most fitting choice.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
4th August 2024, 16:03
Depends.
If you view F1 as a sport then it the very essence of what Motor Sport is supposed to be & what it’s always been until the current show over sport era.
If you view F1 as a show then I guess artificially handicapping some teams while giving others benefits may be seen as great.
I just miss real F1 where teams were more free to innovate and where we had a grid of different looking cars that were all going down different design & development paths. The current show over sport F1 where all the cars look basically identical and where teams are artificially handicapped and where the regulation set is so pathetically restrictive that if leads everyone to go down the same development routes is really sad.
It’s lost it’s identity, It’s specialness, it’s extreme-ness & the thing that set it above everything else & now it more than ever feels like Indycar+ rather than F1 as it’s been since 1950.
It no longer has any business calling itself the Pinnacle of the sport as now it isn’t. Indycar+ it is!
lynn-m
4th August 2024, 16:07
depends if you like your sport to feel artificial or not i guess because that is what f1 has become.
it’s nothing more than trying to artificially close up the order to make it appear more competitive than it actually is and that isn’t what the sport should be about imo.
i don’t like been in a situation where you have to question if the results are down to a team simply doing a better job than others or because they were given artificial help by been able to develop more than others just because they did a worse job the season before.
it’s just as artificial and gimmicky as the awful balance of performance thats killed my interest in sportscar racing the past number of years.
Coventry Climax
4th August 2024, 16:32
Reading the article and all, it’s already made clear and superfluous to hit the I say ‘Click to reveal’ button.
It’s come to the point I don’t care all that much anymore. I miss races on occasion, become more and more numb to rules and stewardry idiocy and don’t believe a word anymore that anyone officially having a job within this F1 circus is saying. It’s become low IQ entertainment for the masses, and just a means of making money for everyone involved.
I loathe the drivers moaning about any of other drivers behavior when they think they can gain an advantage.
And all of it has to do with how the circus is run. Well, clowns usually make the best circus.
I’m fine with it, can’t stop it anyway. Nowhere else to go, unfortunately, so I’ll find something completely different.
F1 used to be my joy, now it’s my constant source of annoyment, and it’s not worth it anymore.
Just don’t call it a constructors championship if there’s nothing much to construct in the first place and then secondly when there’s constructors that even mess that up and are below par, they aren’t helped up, but the ones that did do a decent job are held back and helped down. Would be a good title for a gardening book: How to best grow mediocrity.
And then ask if it’s done the sports any good? Too sad to even reply to. It’s just as clear what I think, as it is what you think, Will Wood, reading your poor arguments. Enjoy the fakeness, everyone.
MichaelN
4th August 2024, 17:37
Is it? It seems like quite the claim to give this credit for a tightened field.
But has it really tightened, or has Red Bull – for whatever reason – suddenly fallen back into the clutches of teams that were already quite similar in pace. Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren have often been closely matched in the past three seasons.
And the midfield is no closer to challenging the big teams than before, despite having an even bigger advantage.
PeterG
4th August 2024, 23:46
For me the ATR is just another reason why I no longer follow F1 as closely as I used to.
For the first time since I became a fan in the early 80s I no longer watch every race, I no longer follow what goes on each weekend & am in general just no longer especially engaged. It started with me skipping sprint related sessions & then carried over to the real sessions & then entire weekends which is something the over saturated calender also pushed me towards doing.
It’s just no longer a real sport, It’s full of gimmicks & artificial Americanised nonsense with an over-saturated calender that has resulted in everything starting to blend together with each race feeling less special & holding less value.
It’s all about quantity over quality & show over sport now & I think many longer term, dedicated fans of the sport are been turned away by it.
Certainly pretty much everyone i know who i used to watch F1 with & attend F1 race weekends with no longer watch because of what it’s been turned into the past few years.
slowmo (@slowmo)
5th August 2024, 0:22
The thing is whether ATR has had any tangible effect at all. Ultimately the extra testing only brings pace if your results correlate on track. In most cases in recent history the big issues for the teams chasing Red Bull is the packages they’re adding are not correlating to the design data and simulation results. This lack of correlation until resolved makes the extra ATR team largely meaningless as they’re not getting the same value per hour as the best team.
Now sure the field has closed but this has happened historically and usually signals the fastest teams have started shifting more development to the next rule set. In the end I voted neither agree or disagree as I genuinely think its done very little to balance the scale and this seemed proven by the fact the reduction for Red Bull due to the budget cap breach and practically no impact.
mega
5th August 2024, 5:47
Is it really the restrictions, OR the taking over the talent from the dominating team?
I”m afraid that we lock in every 3-4 years with new rules.
Next rule round – ONE team will rule them all; and that will take 2-3 years BEFORE gardening leave etc kicks in; & the way to get the most out of the car will be available; and then we get NEW rules; and the circus starts anew.
Robbie1
5th August 2024, 14:01
No, BoP is turning this sport that once celebrated excellence into a clown show that now celebrates the “revival” of incompetents like McLaren.
Glad my F1 subscription ended a week ago.
But hey, DTS fans will probably like it.
Fgs
6th August 2024, 0:05
People who don’t like the sport because it has changed too much should probably find something else. The current regulations are an attempt to level the field and create an interesting race, it would be boring for the team with the most resources to always win, and would become a competition of resources. This way it’s a competition of cars. The regs are way to strict, let’s have a variety of engines and just specify pollution limits for example, many ways to make it more interesting and more of a diverse engineering challenge.