[Andy77]

Originally Posted by jab

.....It's like Le Mans - it's not part of a championship (at the moment) but manufacturers still enter it and sponsors still sponsor

The manufacturers at Le Mans get invited in these days without pre-qualifying.

However, another try might be to reduce F1 to one driver per team only. Team strategies would become obsolete, as well as a rather high saving money effect. Of course, this would need an instance that takes care that not suddenly a manufacturer or team sponsors 3 or more cars.