The fuel stops did mix up the strategies, but in the one season I watched with refuelling, the faster cars still seemed to end up in their normal position by the end of the race, you did get the odd unique strategy, like when Schumacher basically did qualifying style laps for a chunk of a grand prix (Hungary one year rings a bell, but can't be certain), but still the faster cars normally still won the races in the season I have experienced.
False wrote:you have to conclude that the primary issue is that the regulations have become so complicated but also so narrow, that the teams are forced into a path that allows little differentiation or innovation - and we are in a situation currently where one team has solved the formula, and requires little forward development to keep the level of performance that others are catching up to
this further compounds by them being able to allocate time and resources into the next years car under the same formula, with minimal risk, so the cycle continues
i suppose the answer is to have a looser formula with more freedom to design, and probably a change up into how soon the next years/formulas regs are telegraphed
this will literally never happen because it creates too much financial uncertainty for the teams and they would never commit - the teams hold absolute power over the organisation and they are too scared of anyone pulling out (while simultaneously blocking any promising new entries it seems)
You are correct in that the regs don't really allow for much innovation now, everyone is basically trying to copy Red Bull with varying degrees of success. Looser regs should be the norm, but then I guess more teams would just endlessly complain, so they tighten the rules up so teams can't complain as much?
That is one good step they've taken for 2026, no teams are allowed to use wind tunnel/cfd time for those cars till the 1st of January 2025, so I can't see any teams bringing more than one full update package to their cars for next year, but this means if one team starts off on top, they'll be winning nearly everything, again.