Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex K
Still lot of time till the start of the seasons. I agree, Alguersuari is probably trying to survive. He sees that after Renault departure GP2 looks stronger and possibly wants to send the message out.
But, let us flip the coin... Does Europe really need X F4 competitions competing for drivers with EuroFormula, BRDC and Renault 2.0, GP2 competing with FV8 and FIA F3 competing with GP3?
USA has practicly three, maybe four competitions worth mentioning, F2000, Pro Mazda and Lights.... one could add SCCA's run F4. Japanese has three series' worth mentioning, we, in Europe? 10+. There will get to a point where they will be jumping on each other, trolling each other to survive.
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If there was no market for those series, they would have (and some have/are) died out. The fact is that there are just far more aspiring young single seater drivers in Europe right now. If a potential organiser notices that there are many young drivers who want to race but won't be able to access a winning car (or entry at all) in one series, they - provided there's enough interest - can set up a series for those drivers. Too many series would be when they're competing with each other to the point that budgets get too high/entries get too thin - which you can argue is applying right now, certainly to a degree.
That being said, something will give naturally. The single seater ladder would be better without more FIA meddling. Look at how they managed to destroy perfectly healthy series' (national F3) for no good reason, only to now make noises as if they want those series' back.
Without wanting to sound much more like a Hayek-esque economics essay, if GP2 is allowed a "monopoly" (I've failed already...) on the "F2" step on the ladder, surely budgets will only escalate faster in that series, as there's no same-tier series that can compete to keep costs low? i.e. A good driver wants good GP2 seat. The budget required is £2m, he/she has budget of £1.5m. Therefore the driver uses £1.5m to claim top FR3.5 seat instead of mediocre GP2 seat.