Source: Autosport Bernie Ecclestone wants big teams to run third cars in Formula 1, and says smaller outfits should quit the sport if they cannot afford it. Just a week after F1's commercial boss said he would be happy if some of grand prix's backmarkers closed down, Ecclestone has revealed his vision for the future. He reckons F1 would be better off if it was filled with fewer teams running more cars, rather than how it currently is. In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport talking about what the current small teams should do since costs are out of control, Ecclestone said: "They must stop. If you don't have the finances, you quit. "I'm ready for a Formula 1 with eight teams with three cars each. "Is it better to have a third Ferrari or a Caterham? Ferrari could maybe find new sponsors in the USA and an American driver: fantastic. It is the same for the others. "Take Caterham: it has invested lots of money and it would need just as much, so it looks for paying drivers. What for, since it has never been competitive?" Ecclestone believes the best way to attract new names to F1 is to get them to buy current outfits, rather than starting squads from scratch. "It's not easy to start from scratch, F1 costs money," he said. "To buy a team with a windtunnel, simulator and so on, one requires an investment of around 150 million euros. "And you haven't even started: then you need the drivers, the right technicians to build the car, and the good ones are few and expensive. That's why Ferrari wanted Newey..."
In reality... he's kinda right. Most of the tihngs we hate.. engine freezes, no testing, limited "this" limited "that" ... it's all for the small teams benefit it seems. If F1 is to be the cutting edge of everything... that's simply not conducive to have such great disparity. Maybe there's room or need for better revenue sharing, but that's a stink of death all on it's own.
Forget revenue sharing. Make it cheaper...end of story. No one wants spec racing, but the days of Jordan, Minardi, Tyrell, etc. are over and that's a shame.
I have no problem with 3 car or 1 car teams. Drivers still compete individually for the driving title and teams could compete with between 1 and 3 cars with their points divided by the number of cars that they run. In doing so, a single car team would not be as disadvantaged as they would in the Constructors race, although multi-car teams still would have an advantage in points scoring opportunity.
That's the first suggestion from Bernie that I approve for a long time. I would rather see a third car in some well established teams, like Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari rather than Sauber and Caterham struggling at the back. Maybe that third car could be offered to guest drivers, and not have a permanent one imposed all season. Maybe that third car would not score point in the WCC. Maybe the third driver could be considered as a "wild card" like in MotoGP where this system is practiced. I would prefer to see Jules Bianchi in a Ferrari, Kobayashi in a Williams than see them struggling with uncompetitive cars. Maybe only the first 4 teams in a WCC could be allowed to field a third car the following season. That sounds better than double points for the last GP, or standing restarts to me. But I know that any idea that makes sense is a non-started with the FIA!
I like the 3 car idea. You can have two #1 drivers and a #2 driver in the 3rd car. The 3-car config would probably mean larger engineering+mechanical+production teams which could bode well for creativity and rate of development. And anything, even standing restarts, is a better idea than double-points at the last gp...
How about one manufacturer with 24 cars???? How about 16 cars qualify for the race out of anybody who shows up?
Ban carbon brakes, limit aero development, eliminate KERS. Open up the engine spec to multi-cylinder / vendor (including 3rd party). Sorry all, privateers make it fun. Jordan, Sauber, Minardi, Tyrell - all privateers that had podiums, or close to it. Last thing I want to see is another dog Ferrari on the grid (and they are my favorite team). Much rather have Kimi / Lotus from 2013 than the half backed factory teams. F1 is losing the plot.
? Beg to differ there. I reckon, right now, at least half the grid falls into that 'privateer/garagistes' style bucket. Williams, FI, Sauber, Marussia, Caterham and even Fauxtus are all a long way from big factory efforts. And long may that continue too IMO. These guys may not always be at the pointy end, but they're the heart and soul of the series. Williams are damn close again, but for a lack of $, Fauxtus was there or thereabouts a while back and Saubers done well before. Cheers, Ian
Why stop at 3 cars per teams? Lets get back to customer cars for the privateers. Instead of them pissing their funding on infrastructure, let the big teams deal with car development. This should free up money to hire competitive drivers and forego the ride buyers. Surprised Bernie hasn't mentioned relegating backmarkers to GP2 yet like Premier League football.
Remember that in the "old days", three car teams were quite common. I recently watched footage of the 1959 Grand Prix season, and teams like Ferrari, Cooper and BRM usually ran three cars. In the fateful 1961 Italian G.P. where von Trips was killed and Phil Hill clinched his world title, I believe that Scuderia Ferrari entered no fewer than five cars!
Are you sure, Tom? I know that they did enter a yellow car at Spa for Gendebien (who finished at the back of a 1-2-3-4 finish!) but at Monza I think they were all entered by the factory: Hill, von Trips, Ginther, Baghetti and Ricardo Rodriguez.
El Bernie is at it again. This time I believe he's got it right. Let's take a look at the 1961 F1 season when several English and two Italian companies were manufacturing F1 cars and the cost of buying one or two cars and running a full F1 campaign was not crushingly beyond the capability of all but big international automobile manufacturers. Running only one or two races was a possibility even for a not-too-wealthy wanna-be. In 1961 Porsche entered two cars in every race and a third for Hans Herrmann at Monaco and the Nurburgring. Ferrari ran a three car team all season and a fourth car at Spa-Francorchamps (for Belgian driver Olivier Gendebien), at the Nurburgring (for Willie Mairesse) and at Monza (for Ricardo Rodriguez). Cooper ran a two-car team all season for Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren. But eleven other teams ran Climax or Maserati-engined Coopers for one or more of the races. Team Lotus ran two cars in every race that season but there were ten other teams that entered a Lotus-Climax in one or more of the eight races. By 1966 it was silly: there were 24 entrants of cars built by ten different car manufacturers powered by eight different engine manufacturers, spread amongst the 9 F1 races; five different cars won one or more races with Jack Brabham winning four and his third and last world championship in his own car. By 1976 engine manufacturers had dwindled to Coventry-Climax furnishing power for most teams, Ferrari for the Scuderia and Alfa powering two Brabhams for Martini Racing and Matra for a single Ligier. Thirty different teams ran in at least one race! I believe some time in the 1970s teams became limited to two-car entries and I think in the 80s that slow cars had to pre-qualify to ensure that the grid not be too big. Times are much different, the cost just of designing and manufacturing an F1 car is astronomical - computers, full-size wind-tunnels and world-class design engineering and manufacturing facilities and staff - and then one has to hire two very expensive drivers (barring one who comes with finance) and ship and fly cars, drivers, staff et al. around the world for eight to nine months. I'm guessing an annual billion-dollar bill to be competitive.
If multi car teams and customer cars are what it takes to fill the grid with competitive machines so be it. Enough bastardization of the sport to accommodate the minnows.
