By Peter M. DeLorenzo

Detroit. The hand-wringing over BMW and Audi's withdrawal from Formula E has grown more frenzied and demonstrative in recent days, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. Racing ebbs and flows on the whims - and budgets - of the participating manufacturers, and if you don't know this by now you clearly haven't been paying attention. I don't know how many times I've covered this subject in the two-plus decades of writing this motorsports column (I've frankly lost track), because you can write about "racing reaching a crossroads" every damn year.

Yes, there are other factors involved, like when technology started to swallow the sport whole in the late 70s, which triggered the movement toward restricting and restraining the speed of racing cars so they wouldn't overwhelm the existing road circuits and speedways. And hand-in-hand with that movement came the increased - and much-needed - push for safety improvements, which altered the face of racing permanently. These factors have played a dominant role in the sport for decades, but the one constant that has dominated the sport more than any other over that time - and still dominates it today - is manufacturer participation in racing. Without the manufacturers, big-time racing would simply cease to exist. Sure, racing would still survive on an amateur level, but that would be about it. This should not be news, folks.

And in reference to Formula E, I think people conveniently forget why that series even existed in the first place. It was a proactive move on the part of the FIA to get out in front of the burgeoning and politically-charged Green movement in Europe. It was clearly designed to be a major distraction away from the jewel of the FIA empire - Formula 1 - so that it wouldn't get caught in the crosshairs of the "all racing should be banned" movement. And the manufacturers who agreed to participate in it could justify it - up to a point - because it coincided with their BEV programs, which were ramping up dramatically. But let's not mistake it for anything other than that, because with all due respect to the drivers and the teams - and certain media who proclaimed it as being "cool" - Formula E was a nonstarter as a "major" racing series. In fact, I would call it the "Sideshow Bob" of racing with its gimmicky, truncated tracks, its abbreviated and frankly weird schedule, and the constant drum-beating by the FIA PR minions desperately trying to legitimize the series. It didn't work.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this column, racing ebbs and flows on the whims - and budgets - of the participating manufacturers. And clearly, Formula E has become expendable and quite simply, yesterday's news. That this has triggered a hue and cry from allegedly "qualified" observers of the sport is just plain silly. The manufacturers are already lining up for what's next in the racing world, which is the unified international sports car rules - defined as the new LMDh and Hypercar - coming for the 2022 season and agreed upon by the WEC, ACO and IMSA (Audi, Honda and Porsche are already planning entries). I am not going to get into the details of those rules, which are shaping up to be the usual byzantine labyrinth of mysterious pathways to, well, something, but it's clear that Internal Combustion Engines are going to be a part of racing's future indefinitely. (Oh yes, there's the new Extreme E off-road series; but it's a giant "we'll see" at this point.)

You name the series - F1, INDYCAR, IMSA, NASCAR (and their various support series) - and the die has been cast; racing will be powered by ICEs with some form of hybrid assist for the foreseeable future. It makes sense for the overall health of the sport, because racing without the visceral thrill of the sound is simply unacceptable to the participants and spectators alike, and it makes sense to the participating manufacturers for the same reason. Even though the manufacturers are committing huge sums of money in their R&D budgets toward developing and producing BEVs, when it comes to racing, an all-electric racing series is now officially a nonstarter. 

And if that weren't reason enough, never forget the fact that racers ultimately go where the money is, and the manufacturers pretty much dictate their interest every single time.

And that's the High-Octane Truth for this week.

Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, September 1959. The 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray racer outside of tech inspection for the Road America 500. GM Styling boss Bill Mitchell personally bought the "mule" chassis for the 1957 Corvette SS factory racer and commissioned new bodywork for it, assembling his best and brightest designers - including a 19-year-old Peter Brock - to work on it. The result was one of the most iconic shapes in automotive history. Mitchell originally had the Sting Ray racer painted red, but it was repainted in Mitchell's favorite German racing metallic silver soon afterward. Dr. Dick Thompson and Tony Lapine (one of the GM designers who worked on the car) co-drove the Corvette Sting Ray in the race (with the No. 10), but they encountered braking issues and did not finish.