'If you follow you don't lead and if you don't lead you don't win' -- Anon.

Dave Hollom argues for greater courage in America's Cup design

In the late 1990s the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the governing body of international motorsport, took decisive action to change the regulations that govern the design and build of a Formula One car. It considered that corner speeds had become excessively high and that in the interests of safety they needed to be reduced. As fast corners are normally the most dangerous and as corner speed in fast corners is dependent very much on aerodynamic downforce the idea was to reduce the downforce and thus the cornering speeds of the cars in fast corners.

It was generally accepted that the change in the regulations achieved a reduction of around 25 per cent in downforce compared to the previous season but over the winter, between the end of one season and the beginning of the next, the designers and technicians at the top teams had clawed about 80 per cent of that back; so the net reduction in downforce, compared to the previous season, was only about five per cent. No mean achievement.

Admittedly with a new rule or a change in rules there is more scope for large-scale improvement as the law of diminishing returns has yet to set in. However, even under a stable rule it is expected that, over the course of a Formula One season, downforce will be increased by around five to 10 percent - although one technical director considers that if you achieved 10 per cent the car was pretty naff in the first place.

But even a seven per cent improvement, which is considered reasonable for a car that was good at the beginning of the season, is impressive. However, a seven per cent improvement in downforce is not a seven per cent increase in performance.

The reasons are many...

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