Comment: F1 and Supercars change like chalk and cheese

Start during the Formula One Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit. Photo / Getty Images

In their own particular ways the worlds of Supercars Australia and Formula 1 have made some special announcements over the last week or so.

The 2019 Supercars season will be coming to a track near you with added 'Ford Mustang' after the release of that news by Ford Australia. No doubt helped along by some considerable elbow nudging in the halls of Ford World HQ at Number 1 American Road, Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, Michigan by the inimitable Roger Penske who had lately made unveiled suggestions that he could have easily ditched Ford for another manufacturer in that series. His team will also, purely coincidentally of course, be running newly bodied 'Mustangs' in the NASCAR series next year.

Great news for the championship to have the evocative name back on the track, even though, privately, Ford Australia may not be brimming with unbridled enthusiasm about the deal if some rumours are to be believed.

There is a lot of work ahead in getting the standard Mustang 'adjusted' in shape and size and it will be interesting to see how the car can be homologated to fit in with the existing regulations and controlled platform and whether the Supercars version of the Mustang retains it's immediately recognisable individuality.

In Formula 1 there was a meeting of the Formula 1 Strategy Group and Formula 1 Commission and out of that meeting came a few seemingly minor new rules for the 2019 F1 season. Among them was an additional fuel allowance to curb the need for some drivers to 'fuel save' during a race and a separation of the weight of the driver to that of the minimum weight of the car. Important for driver well being essentially. The third was the introduction and use of 'Biometric Gloves' that will be introduced with the aim of improving safety, response time and vital information for the emergency doctors attending any crash.

Of course, other discussion points were set around the much larger issues of budgets and power unit regulations set to be introduced in 2019 but that discussion will be ongoing.

More about the Biometric gloves in a moment but the importance of this meeting of great minds over the future of the sport is perhaps the most significant thing. It seems there is this on-going willingness on the part of Liberty Media, the FIA, the various commissions and the teams themselves to continue the narrative around improving the sport for the future.

Under the previous ownership of the sport the cloak and dagger style of secrecy surrounding any discussions to do with money, contracts, specific under the table deals with 'favoured' teams, or just about anything else for that matter was comparable to that of North Korea. In fact Mr. Ecclestone was happy to call himself a 'Dictator' although perhaps one of the beneficent kind as opposed to Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.

The ship of Formula 1 is slowly being turned around and like any huge behemoth of a fully laden tanker, it has to be achieved in small increments at first. The world of Supercars is, to all intents and purposes, a domestic one make series. Exciting racing certainly, good viewing and great entertainment definitely. But to try and compare it to Formula 1 is like comparing Pizza and Chateaubriand.

For Supercars to introduce new regulations is a comparatively simple process. The cars are essentially the same so rarely does one team develop something entirely new that is in any way contentious without the other teams having knowledge of it. Nor do they have the burden of many thousands of employees depending on the sport for a living. Engineering counts, of course it does as in all forms of motorsport but with Formula 1 the major players represent some of the largest companies in the world in terms of brand recognition.

It is no easy matter to adjust incredibly complicated contracts and agreements, set down for years ahead, while the boardrooms of Mercedes, Honda, Ferrari and the like sit back thinking of their own particular well being as opposed to that of the sport itself. The comparison between Supercars and Formula 1 in this instance is like establishing the rules for a game of beach rugby and trying to negotiate the Brexit arrangements for the UK.

For Formula 1 to succeed and prosper, to use a well-worn phrase, the playing field has to be levelled. In doing that these large corporations that go motor racing will inevitably lose much of their power and influence and that is not something that immediately appeals to any of them. All this is happening, hopefully, in the very near future.

The Biometric gloves are a huge step in the welfare of the drivers and their importance should not be underestimated. Initially a sensor in the gloves will measure the amount of oxygen in the blood and pulse rate (a pulse oximetry sensor) and transmit that information to the medical teams.

In the event of an accident that affects a driver's breathing the oxygen level diminishes rapidly so those medical people will be able to monitor the driver through physiological and biometric readings.

The FIA should be applauded for this initiative.