The irony of your statement is that Formula 1 places a huge list of engineering limitations on teams (engine displacement, weight, dimensions, even ECM firmware), and any "performance enhancing" outside of these parameters has historically led to scandals in the sport.

So does cycling. Everything from wheel size, tube profile, saddle angle even down to the basic double diamond shape is regulated.

The entire modern sport of cycling is based around the idea that riders sheltering behind forward team mates or rivals burn much less energy pushing through the air.

Without the rules governing bike design riders would probably gravitate to the use of fully faired recumbent bikes and the team dynamic would be lost. We'd be reduced to what amounts to individual time trials.

This is one reason why we have individual and team time trials on slightly less restricted designs to separate the desciplins.

The UCI is relaxing some of its aero rules, though: http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/uci-set-to-scr...

Isn't air resistance still the limiting factor even on a fully faired recumbent bike? A cooperating team should still handily beat a soloist.