Parr says only eight teams next year, three car teams.

[PlatinumZealot]

Ok first of all my guess on the eight teams that have the strongest chance to remain would be:

Mercedes
Mclaren
RedBull
Williams
Ferrari
Torro-Rosso
Lotus
Force India

All the best drivers are in this eight teams so no need for seat shuffling. I can't see any of the top five drivers wanting to go into another team with other top drivers in them.

[Raleigh]

Marussia should be fine, with their success this year they look set to become a category 1 team which is worth about $36M, plus prize money, so they should have a much bigger budget in 2015.

Lotus should be okay, worst case they have to tighten belts and cut staff.

Sauber is in trouble but there are rumors they will be brought by Canadian billionaire Laurence Stroll.

Caterham is in big trouble though if the new consortium's funds are not forthcoming, could easily see them folding because unless they can take 10th in the constructors they will get no prize money next year.

Anyone know what's happening with Forza Rossa now that Colin Knolles is involved with Caterham?

[iotar__]

So who sold this story to Parr to publicise and why, a team perhaps? Why not through media?
Boullier basically confirmed plans but not that soon. Hopefully third car story is Montezemolo's only last desperate attempt. Three cars .

[Manoah2u]

............
Mclaren Honda "title sponsor":

-James Magnussen
-Jenson Button (if he takes a pay cut)
-Stoffel Vandoorne

i didn't know swimming would get you a f1 superlicense and a honda mclaren f1 seat.....

[Manoah2u]

Why would James Magnussen change his profession from swimmer to racing driver?

nevermind, missed this reply

[Manoah2u]

on a more serious note;

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114744

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.

He reckons F1 would be better off if it was filled with fewer teams running more cars,
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."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111794

Marussia sporting director Graeme Lowdon believes three-car teams would be detrimental for Formula 1, as he reckons smaller outfits are vital for the sport.

"I certainly think F1's future would be richer and brighter for the fans if there is a diversity of teams," Lowdon told AUTOSPORT.

"In terms of the show the fans would lose out.

"It is a team sport, the drivers are the heroes, but it is a team game and [when] you reduce the number of teams you reduce the competition - it is as simple as that.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/11/09/w ... tion-f1-2/

Martin Whitmarsh says introducing three-car teams would be “the wrong solution” for F1.

F1 teams must stick to their cost-cutting plans for the good of the sport.

I think we shouldn’t underestimate how tough it is for the smaller teams. It’s fine for perhaps some of the bigger teams, who feel quite confident about their future, but the fact is we need ten or twelve teams in the sport to race against.

“I personally think that going to generate grid size with three-car teams – I understand why some people are attracted to that, if it was necessary it has some interest to McLaren – but I think for Formula 1 it’s the wrong solution.

“Formula 1 requires the diversity of entry. I think we therefore have to work hard to endeavour to ensure that there are sustainable business models for all of the teams that are in Formula 1.”

resource restrictment will make the entire idea of 3 cars impossible.
as mentioned, extra engine costs, personel, tires, not to mention the perhaps even impossibility of housing a 3rd car in the garage on the pits are instant-kill imho. Not to forget the extreme logistic problem of adding another car to the team.
if all the teams would run a 3rd car, that'll be 8 cars extra to be hauled. where are they gonna put that extra car per team, without huge extra transport costs?

all it will do is make f1 much, much, mucho more expensive per team, as if it isn't expensive enough.
a team like williams, whom are suddenly doing a wonderfull job again, will fall back and might even 'go bankrupt' over a 3rd car. perhaps not over 1 season but 2, 3?

and before that, sauber caterham and marussia will aready be gone. HAAS will lose out instantaneously, too - no way they can handle and survive that, AND they'll lose a certain amount of satellite benefit from ferrari.

That means in a time shorter of a decade, all we'll have left are Ferrari, Mclaren and Mercedes? 9 cars on the grid, yeah right.

F1 is turning insane, the engines have cost them enough, i'd take it easy with the rules for a while.

[wesley123]

Can't confirm it, but afaik engines were more expensive than that 10 years ago.

That's not how I remember it.

The thing i remember reading was around that time Minardi had a 20 million dollar engine deal for the older Cosworths. The rest paid much more. However, there too was more manufacturer presence, with Ford, Toyota, BMW, Honda, having a manufacturer team. So for those, it would have been cheaper.

[NTS]

Serious question, ignoring the politics and fans of backmarker teams: would racing be more fun to watch if we had the top teams Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, Williams, McLaren and maybe Force India with three cars while losing Caterham? That would mean more equally matched cars with more drivers fighting. Since currently Marussia and Caterham are not providing drivers a chance to fight with the others. So the result could be a more driver oriented championship with lots of close battles to watch...

[Hail22]

............
Mclaren Honda "title sponsor":

-James Magnussen
-Jenson Button (if he takes a pay cut)
-Stoffel Vandoorne

http://resources0.news.com.au/images/20 ... nussen.jpg

i didn't know swimming would get you a f1 superlicense and a honda mclaren f1 seat.....

I wanted to see how long it took for someone to catch up to my sly addition of a swimmer into Mclaren Honda, for that you get a +1

Edited it to the original name of "Kevin" Magnussen...does he like to swim though?

[Raleigh]

I'm not entirely against 3 car teams, imagine Lewis, Nico and Fernado in Mercs fighting for the title...

Which said 12 teams is probably the best option, but if grid numbers drop...

resource restrictment will make the entire idea of 3 cars impossible.
as mentioned, extra engine costs, personel, tires, not to mention the perhaps even impossibility of housing a 3rd car in the garage on the pits are instant-kill imho. Not to forget the extreme logistic problem of adding another car to the team.
if all the teams would run a 3rd car, that'll be 8 cars extra to be hauled. where are they gonna put that extra car per team, without huge extra transport costs?

There are no serious logistics problems. The pit garages are designed around 24 cars, the teams running 3 cars could simply expand to 3 car garages. Currently 22 cars get hauled around the world to races, before HRT dropped out that was 24, no issues there. The big four teams that would probably go to 3 cars can afford to swallow the cost. So long as the overall grid size remains similar there would not be any problems.

[Richard]

Serious question, ignoring the politics and fans of backmarker teams: would racing be more fun to watch if we had the top teams Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, Williams, McLaren and maybe Force India with three cars while losing Caterham? That would mean more equally matched cars with more drivers fighting.

We'd have fewer teams fighting each other. At the moment the teams in mid field and at the back have pride in beating their competitors, but that incentive would vanish if the people at the back were an after thought.

Remember how team orders neutered Barrichello and Massa at Ferrari? Now imagine if that was doubled for teams with a history of having a number 1 driver (ie Ferrari and Red Bull).

Some teams like McLaren or Merc have a reputation for letting 2 drivers race each other, but I can't imagine that would be practical for 3 drivers. I imagine they'd probably view the number 3 as a reserve or development role.

Teams like Lotus or Sauber could easily see this as an opportunity to have an extra pay driver.

In a nutshell, 3 drivers in a team would result in more drivers following team orders, more development drivers, more pay drivers. Less diversity lead to less competition.

[Moxie]

Serious question, ignoring the politics and fans of backmarker teams: would racing be more fun to watch if we had the top teams Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, Williams, McLaren and maybe Force India with three cars while losing Caterham? That would mean more equally matched cars with more drivers fighting.

We'd have fewer teams fighting each other. At the moment the teams in mid field and at the back have pride in beating their competitors, but that incentive would vanish if the people at the back were an after thought.

Remember how team orders neutered Barrichello and Massa at Ferrari? Now imagine if that was doubled for teams with a history of having a number 1 driver (ie Ferrari and Red Bull).

Some teams like McLaren or Merc have a reputation for letting 2 drivers race each other, but I can't imagine that would be practical for 3 drivers. I imagine they'd probably view the number 3 as a reserve or development role.

Teams like Lotus or Sauber could easily see this as an opportunity to have an extra pay driver.

In a nutshell, 3 drivers in a team would result in more drivers following team orders, more development drivers, more pay drivers. Less diversity lead to less competition.

Moreover, as F1 is a team sport and financial rewards are paid out according to WCC results as opposed to WDC results, the effect will be like watching the Yankees play the Red Socks every week. The team competition is already very lopsided in this regard. Three car teams will seal the deal. Even if a two car team team manages to out engineer the other teams, it will be damned near impossible to win the WCC without a third car earning points.

The solution to this dilemma would be to allow one car teams, and pay prize money for winning individual races and for winning the WDC. Teams could choose to focus limited resources on a single car, or on a single event.

[Richard]

There's more than enough money in F1 to make sure every team has a decent income. The trouble is that those with their hands on the cash would rather reduce competitiveness than countenance changing the cash distribution.

[Andres125sx]

In a nutshell, 3 drivers in a team would result in more drivers following team orders, more development drivers, more pay drivers. Less diversity lead to less competition.

Less comptetition? Is that posible?

Seriously, I´m not that sure about your theory. If a team dominates like we´ve seen lately, 3 drivers would provide a bit more fight for the WDC. The team orders excuse is valid when some driver has lost his options, but to that point every team allow free fight (free with some limits obviously). With 3 drivers that would be more fun as if some driver loose too many points, there would be two more yet to continue the fight, maybe to the end of the championship

With two drivers, once one of them loose too many points, the champioship is finished what means last 5, 6 or even more races are useless and boring. See 2011 and 2013. With one more car we´d have seen a bit more fight between them and the championships wouldn´t have been so boring


On a side note, you UK fans should discard that myth about McLaren don´t provide TOs. Ask Kovalainen. He let pass Hamilton more than once on 2008, or that does not count?. Every team do the same, if one of their drivers loose his chances for the WDC, from that point the team would be plain stupid if they let him win his team mate. Too late mate. Same as Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, or any team who is fighting for the WDC.

And this is not exclusive from F1, it´s exactly the same as MotoGP, WRC, Dakar, or any other motorsport. I don´t understand the reason people discuss so much about TO´s in F1, but they´re normal at any other motorsport... Or not even motorsport, do we talk about cycling? Competition + Teams = Team Orders. It´s normal.

IMHO the problem is exactly if there´re only two drivers in each team, once one of them is out of the fight, there´s no more fight, and that´s too easy to happen as we´ve seen in 2009, 2011, 2013...

[SilverArrow10]

Well McLaren have had plenty of number 2 drivers. Mika and Couthard, Senna and Berger. But they are also not afraid of hiring two top guys and not controlling them, Like Senna and Prost. Button and Hamilton.

In regards to three car teams, only problem I see is the fact that a dominant team would lock out the podium, and then the other drivers don't have something to fight for. Everyone loves a trophy.