If motorsport is to be represented in the Olympics then it should be fully represented, not just one category. How angry/disappointed would say, Lewis Hamilton, be if he found out that cover-wheeled oval racing would be the only category, or someone like Jason Plato finding out that the category is open wheel F1 style. Sure there are many great drivers in the world, but to represent one category hurts so much of the community's chance to medal, let alone win. IF motorsport is included in a future Olympics it should have these categories:
Motorcycles 1000cc, 600cc, 250cc Circuit
Cover Wheel Circuit - FR 300-350 hp ideal, 400 max
Cover Wheel Oval - FR 600-650 hp
Cover Wheel Rally - WRC Specs probably best
Open Wheel Circuit - 575-625 hp, no DRS or ERS
Open Wheel Oval? (really only favours IndyCar/Lights drivers so probably not) - 550 hp max no P2P
Single Driver Circuit Endurance - 6 Hours - 1 make of LMP2 or Ginetta LMP3
Four Driver Relay Circuit Endurance - 24 Hours - same as above
Then there's the question of venue, let's run with the upcoming Tokyo Olympics as an example. The Oval event(s) could take place at Motegi, but would you have the circuit events there? I would argue no because the circuit is mostly straights, hairpins, and right angle corners which I think is not challenging enough for the drivers as the races should really be feats of athletic endurance to some degree. Obviously they shouldn't clash with the length of the endurance events but they should top 2 hours in length. So where should the events take place? Tsukuba is even closer than Motegi but is surely not suited to the large amount of machinery that would be brought in by the games. So of the big name ones that leaves Fuji and Suzuka, each is a very different track, but arguably Suzuka fits the Olympic bill better as quite a lot of the circuit is corner, requiring more physical effort.
Then there's another problem, pit stops would be a necessity with the length of the races, the simple fix to keep drivers exactly where they were on track, so long as the race stays green, is a mandatory stop time. The crews should be hired by the IOC and would be the only people allowed to touch the car apart from the driver.
The final super large problem, there's well over 200 countries in the world. Now if we only account for countries that quite regularly participate in motorsport there would still be likely well over 60 countries looking to take to the grid. Let's take 60 dead on as an example, so now, we have 60 countries competing on the oval. Clearly that's too many, the logical way to go about it is to run heats first. Do we have 2 heats of 30 or 3 heats of 20, sure the track can fit 30 cars, and while Motegi is wide, wrecks will be almost certain to happen. So 3 heats of 20 would probably be better, but how do you divide up who makes it to the final, do you increase the number to 30 so the top 10 in each race makes it through, or leave it at 20 so then 7, 7, and 6 go through? The heats should probably be the same length as the final as they are in all the other Olympic track events, so now we ask what happens for the 24 hour race, are you really going to run heats for that or run all 60 cars at once? If you run all 60 at Suzuka, even if they are actually the best drivers each country has, there will almost certainly be a first lap crash because Suzuka is so narrow in comparison to Fuji. However, as is SOP for the Olympics an entirely new venue could possibly be built, but that is unlikely seeing as the bid was made years ago and 4 years is not enough time to develop from scratch what would almost certainly need to be a Grade 1 FIA circuit.
I would love to see Olympic motorsport, I would watch the crap out of it, but I would feel generally let down if it was pretty much just F1 but in the Olympics.
