Since Manor left the Formula 1 grid at the end of the 2016 season, only ten teams have graced the Grand Prix grid in the last six seasons.
That issue will continue into 2023 and the next few seasons, but hopes of a wider grid of supporters rose this week when FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulaiman announced the governing body would begin expressions of interest. Enters Formula 1.
Andretti wasted no time in throwing his hat in the ring by announcing that he would be launching a bid to enter Formula 1 in partnership with GM brand Cadillac. Despite Andretti’s desire to join the world championship being widely known, they began to link up with an American. A brand like Cadillac appeared to add more legitimacy to their campaign.
But Andretti is by no means the only body interested in joining the grid. Canadian billionaire Calvin Lo has spoken widely of his desire to form a new team in recent months, while businessman Salvatore Gandolfo and Monaco’s rising management looked at the company’s attempt to join Formula 1 before the outbreak.
However, after four new teams were entered for the 2010 season with a strong interest in joining Formula 1 for the new power unit formula in 2026, there are naturally concerns within and outside of Formula 1 about the viability of any brand. New groups joining the grid. Especially when all four new entries for 2010 failed or failed to even make grids at all.
So should Formula 1 and the FIA only accept new entries from teams that already have an active racing pedigree in other series or forms of motorsport?
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b
Formula 1 is considered the pinnacle of motorsport. But the story is full of teams who were given entry into the sport and struggled to qualify for competition, let alone races. Almost always, none of these groups can emerge from obscurity and fall by the wayside in the end.
If the FIA is serious about expanding the grid, it must ensure that it only works with teams that have the capacity, experience and ability to compete at a competitive level, let alone succeed. It is no coincidence that Haas, the last new team to join Formula 1, remains on the grid after joining F1, with a history of success in North American motorsport.
With so many formidable teams and manufacturers racing in other international motorsport series or junior single-seater Formula One, the FIA could limit the risk of the teams disappearing from the grid after a few seasons by selecting them. They choose to join Formula 1.
against
Having an established motorsport pedigree in no way guarantees a successful entry into Formula 1. In the year In 2010, Campos Racing’s Adrian Campos helped found an F1 team that would eventually become HRT – the first of three new teams to drop from the grid that season. Similarly, Virgin operated at Manor, but this did not prevent them from suffering the same fate as HRT, albeit some years later.
It is also true that Formula 1 is full of success stories with teams that did not have many seasons before joining the World Championship – McLaren, Brabham, Anglo American Racing (Eagle).
Finally, with many manufacturers seeing the rise in popularity of F1 and licking their lips at the prospect of joining the grid, the reality is that it is much easier to take an existing entry than to join as a new entrant. Even if a new team does fight, there is a greater chance that the team will be taken over by an interested third party than it was during Manor’s absence from the sport.
i say
One of the key factors in this is the issue of budget capital. In fact, until the budget cap was removed from the rules before 2010, that forced many teams to apply to join the grid, putting many new teams in a difficult position.
Now, all current teams are actively guarded against the budget cap, with many of last year’s team directors expressing their belief that the field will eventually become more competitive in the sport as it becomes more competitive in the years to come. And this makes joining F1 more viable than ever, apart from the past feedback loop of underachievement leading to poor performance until the team falls into oblivion.
While it’s good to see well-known racing teams like Andretti enter the World Championship, it shouldn’t just be those that have already competed and won in other categories. After all, the great teams in Formula 1 are heralded for what they achieved after joining the sport, not what they were before they became part of the great Grand Prix.
you say
Do you agree that the FIA should only accept new teams from Formula 1 approved racing teams?
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