CVT is the theoretically ideal transmission as it allows the engine to run at its maximum potential for as long as possible. Imagine a transmission that allows your car to run at maximum power rpm continuously for maximum acceleration and speed. This would allow the use of extremly peaky and powerful engines with no penalty whatsover.
But CVT was banned in many forms of racing. So the ultimate approach now is to simply use engines with good powerbands and to shift gears with no time loss. Unfortunately, with F-1s propensity to ban anything that is innovative and of very good for road cars (e.g. Renault's variable intake system), the powerband equation goes down teh drain. What they CAN do, however, is to remove the annoying shift lag via zeroshift, which is still a normal geared transmission but can be shifted without loss of torque to the wheels.
Let's hope they don't ban this so this tech will soon trickle down to road cars. It actually makes little sense to ban it since it shaves miliseconds to lap times and will not magically turn Scott Speed into Micheal Schumacher or Kimi Raikonnen. For instance, if Honda didn't monkey around with VTEC during the turbo era, VTEC wouldn't have been so well developed for today numerous Honda performance cars tah trange from Honda Integras to Honda NSXs.
Never, knew. Shows how ignorant I can be even though I watch every race 
).