Formula One shows why it's the best

Today's start to the Formula One season at the Australian Grand Prix is evidence as to why it's the best form of auto racing.

The results spoke for itself. The Brawn GP team -- remnants of the Honda outfit that closed its doors due to the global recession -- proved with its 1-2 finish that innovation within the new aerodynamic regulations can help even the smaller teams gain a competitive advantage against the top dogs at McLaren and Ferrari.

In what other series can an under achieving, bottom feeding team make such great strides in one off-season? None come to mind. Today's results had as much to do with ingenuity and innovation as it did with Jenson Button's skill.

Series that have fully (or near fully) specified cars and engines do have their benefits -- one of which is that you can make the argument that the best drivers win. But Formula One, with it's regulations that don't fully specify cars or engines, puts as much of the race outcome in the hands of engineering departments as it does the drivers and raceday crews. This leads to innovation in engineering, and from that we all benefit -- be it from enhanced competition on the race track or passenger car innovation in the automotive industry.

The other, more highly funded were a victim of circumstance, per se -- testing restrictions during the off-season kept them from learning valuable information about the performance of the car. But the lack of testing didn't give Brawn GP an unfair advantage; it just leveled the playing field.

I emphasize enough how refreshing it was to not have Ferrari, Renault and McLaren not in the running for a podium finish.

I love a level playing field. It makes sports interesting. This also gives me hope that the USGPE team can be competitive out of the box in 2010.