Formula One’s testing limits ended an era of engineering freedom

Imagine if Rory McIlroy or Jon Rahm could only ever swing a golf club on a practice range the day before a tournament weekend? Then go straight into a competitive weekend. Seems silly, doesn’t it? In reality, golfers play many, many rounds of golf between tournaments.

But the world’s most complex sport runs by a set of rules that ties the hands of most engineers behind their backs. The old Formula One test days were brute-force engineering sessions where a team could turn up with a new floor, a different rear wing, a revised suspension layout and a third version of a brake duct, then run the lot until the stopwatch showed which was most effective.

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