Bank imbalance

Sir,

In his January `Modern Times’ column, Simon Taylor craves a more level F1 playing field, with simpler cars, to rein in the big-money teams.

I don’t believe the spec of the cars is the root problem, however. If large funding is available to some teams, they will spend it to extract an advantage, even from a simple car. It is the sheer scale of the money available which is itself the problem, and this results from the overblown stature of F1, which now eclipses all other forms of Motorsport worldwide.

Back in the ’70s, which gave us many great GPs, F1 faced competition from other categories, both for spectator interest and sponsorship. Now sportscars, touring cars and F2/F3 appear to have declined at international level, to the point where all the resources funnel into Grand Prix racing.

You might wonder how the governing body has allowed this to happen — but only if you have forgotten who receives the TV money from F1.

I am, Yours etc, Don Sandom, Twyford, Berkshire