I wonder if this piece was sponsored by DHL.

Undoubtedly. I read the first paragraph and thought "this is a DHL advert".

Many pieces in Wired seem that way these days. :-/

These days? Have they ever published a neutral, trying-to-be-objective piece on anything?

How about http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html ?

The team chef will often buy food locally - sometimes because they have to. Team Sahara Force India spent $3700 on just their first trip to Costco in Austin.

> “We couldn’t ship anything here to the U.S., so we had to start from scratch,” said Freeman.

http://kxan.com/2014/10/29/f1-team-grocery-shops-for-race-we...

Q. How to ship insert item around the world really fast?

A. Have lots of money.

I know some one who works on these big product launches ad he commented that hiring a transport 747 to do a UK-USA run was actually relatively cheap

Sometimes a 747 isn't enough: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_Beluga

I've heard some people complain that F1 and similar sports are a waste of money, but something to keep in mind about these events is their engineering all trickle down into modern day cars. Through the rules enacted, engineers must develop new ways to create fast, powerful cars. The new techniques and inventions all trickle down into the average consumer vehicles. I think it's wonderful that our sports are defining our future.

Engineering trickle down from F1 doesn't happen anymore. It does if you buy a McLaren or Ferrari road car, but there's practically zilch for anything else that's both common and affordable. The closest thing you will get to F1 tech in a cheap road car is the $54k Alfa Romeo 4C with its CF tub.

Hybrid power systems existed on the road before being adopted by F1. Things like ABS, traction control, and stability management did appear on F1 cars before road cars, but that's largely concurrent development, not a trickle-down. And besides, F1 cars today are no longer allowed to have any driver aids; no ABS, no traction control, no stability management.

Things like carbon brakes existed in aerospace before F1, so nix on that, too.

Gearboxes that shift in the blink in an eye may have come from F1, but the technology between them is radically different.

If you want actual racing (but not F1) technology that made it into a road car, go buy a Subaru WRX or a Porsche. Or an Audi. Or a Corvette.

> Things like carbon brakes existed in aerospace before F1, so nix on that, too.

I know absolutely nothing of the history involved here, but the argument seems wrong to me. Even if the technology exists in an entirely different kind of vehicle, if it works its way through expensive luxury cars before ending up in consumer-grade ones then I think it's fair to give the luxury cars some credit for progress in car engineering. Adapting an existing technology to a completely new environment doesn't just happen, it takes effort.

Same can be said for consumerism. Some argue its a waste and an environmental disaster that people change phones every couple of years, but it drives a technological development which trickles down to less lucrative, glamorous and mass market applications. No one would develop something like a Snapdragon processor just for medical devices, but once the technology is pioneered on phones, it can definitely be reused.

Besides, our existence has no reason or cause other than having fun. And motorsport is awesome fun and entertainment.

> having fun.

It could be argued that we could append to having fun "while keeping the planet alive." And F1 glorifies unsustainable habits and attitudes toward the planet.

But other than that I agree with you.

Well, in the first place, planets aren't alive, so they can't be kept alive. But stipulating some meaningful interpretation of "keeping the planet alive", why would that be a reason for or cause of human existence?

Sometimes. There's plenty of technical competition between engine manufacturers, but in most other areas the rules are so strict that there's little room for useful creativity.

Actually, there's very little competition between engine manufacturers. Engine development is frozen from the start of the season. This year, Mercedes got the engine very right, and Renault much less so. Ferrari have gotten it all wrong. Can Renault and Ferrari develop their engines over the course of a season? Nope. Not very competitive, is that?

For true competition in engines, we have to go all the way back to 2005 (the end of the V-10 era) when V-10's like Honda's Suzuka Special punched out 1000 HP from 3 liters...on essentially pump fuel in a naturally aspirated engine.

FIA's constant fiddling with engine regs has dramatically increased the cost of power...so much so, that a single PU (Power Unit in F1 parlance: Internal Combustion Engine, Hybrid Stuff)today costs as much as an entire season's worth of customer engines in 2005.

F1 switched to V-8 hybrids in 2006, and quickly clamped down on development once there was parity in horsepower.

And, let's not forget about the preposterous $500MM Mercedes spent developing this year's engine.

Oddly enough there was the first f1 news item about transport for a long time, this week. The team who were at the bottom of the leaderboard last year, and therefore had the lowest budget and highest debt, were trying to attend this weekend's season finale. They had the cargo at the airport, but not the funding. The funding came a few hours later and the plane had gone. That was how they knew they couldn't attend this weekend.

TLDR: take it apart and put it on a plane

>TLDR: take it apart and put it on a plane

Yeah, I'm not sure why it's a surprise to anybody that you can load anything on a plane and get it anywhere in the world as fast as that plane can fly.

What's with all these mediocre Wired articles making the first page?

Native advertising, maybe?

It reminds me of all those dumb patents that just take something normal and add "on the Internet." Buy books... on the internet! Move cars... by plane!

May be a sponsored article, but still the massive scale that applies to F1 racing is mind-blowing.

I had never thought it 'd require 30-50to material to be shipped across the globe - and it's not surprising many teams have financial problems.

Get ready for tommorow's amazing race!.