I’ll be keeping an eye out for any Renault announcement today.

My 1 1/2 cents: I want good, competitive racing with some personalities I can root for/against, and if there are a few teams with history — Ferrari, Williams, McLaren for a start — that rounds things out nicely. Oh, also there has to be a sense of it — real or not?! — being on the cutting edge of automotive technology, using that phrase very broadly.

However, remember that Max is an old crusty just like many who still follow F1. It has been mentioned many times that there have been eras in this sport where there were hardly any manufacturers in F1. The only consistent manufacturer has been Ferrari.

The question is, what is more important: who is building the engines or who is going about with the racing? Teams are constructors just as much as manufacturers. McLaren and Williams have won Constructors championship with several different engines including _Cosworth_.

In the 60 years of f1, the “manufacturer era” is only a recent phenomenon. F1 has such a rich history, and there is no reason to think it will be any less rich in the future with Cosworth powering a majority of cars in the field.

I’ve had a really hard time watching WRC with just two manufacturers – is this what is going to happen to Formula 1 after Honda, BMW, Toyota, and possibly Renault leave the sport? The diversity of teams, engines, etc made everything interesting. I really hope that this series isn’t headed to only a handful of engine suppliers and a bunch of near-spec cars. Yawn.