f1 3 car teams

[stevemorse]

I,m not sure if there is a thread already for this.
Due to the financial struggle of smaller teams in F1,wouldn't it be better for the top six teams to have 3 car teams.
But the third car be driven by someone under the age of 25 or less than 2 years experience in F1.

[GTRMagic]

It seems that Sauber didnt get the memo about cancelling the 3 car team plan..

[Pontlieue]

There are several potential problems with three car teams:

-With three cars per team, the top teams would dominate even more than currently. Apart from the top 4, the other teams would only fight for minor points.

-Apart from Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull, the teams would have difficulties to fund another car. And even some top teams have expressed that they would prefer to avoid these additional costs.

-Additional costs for the third car, and lower finishing positions in the races, which would likely result in lower media coverage would threaten the current midfield teams.

-Red Bull might consider getting rid of Toro Rosso if third cars became mandatory. This is entirely speculative from me, but I don't know if they'd really want to run 6 cars.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

It seems that Sauber didnt get the memo about cancelling the 3 car team plan..

I thought the same thing. Clearly the solution is more cars for the smaller teams as they have more pay drivers than cars!

Richard

[stevemorse]

Originally Posted by Pontlieue

There are several potential problems with three car teams:

-With three cars per team, the top teams would dominate even more than currently. Apart from the top 4, the other teams would only fight for minor points.

-Apart from Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull, the teams would have difficulties to fund another car. And even some top teams have expressed that they would prefer to avoid these additional costs.

-Additional costs for the third car, and lower finishing positions in the races, which would likely result in lower media coverage would threaten the current midfield teams.

-Red Bull might consider getting rid of Toro Rosso if third cars became mandatory. This is entirely speculative from me, but I don't know if they'd really want to run 6 cars.

Yes I can see your point of view of top teams dominating.
I think in the next couple of years we are going to probably lose four of the teams.
I would rather see 15/18 drivers on the grid instead of 10/12 drivers.
At least we may see three drivers fighting for the title instead of two or one.

[gaaaazFR]

Originally Posted by Pontlieue

There are several potential problems with three car teams:

-With three cars per team, the top teams would dominate even more than currently. Apart from the top 4, the other teams would only fight for minor points.

-Apart from Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull, the teams would have difficulties to fund another car. And even some top teams have expressed that they would prefer to avoid these additional costs.

-Additional costs for the third car, and lower finishing positions in the races, which would likely result in lower media coverage would threaten the current midfield teams.

-Red Bull might consider getting rid of Toro Rosso if third cars became mandatory. This is entirely speculative from me, but I don't know if they'd really want to run 6 cars.

Then you can also think of solution for those problems :

- Run 3rd cars for the previous year to ensure some kind of "sporting equality"

- Do make mandatory the third driver as to be a "junior" (less than X GP experience for instance...) to promote young guns

- 8 teams of 3 cars means the budget of some paying drivers or young drivers programs will be available, so they'll find money to finance it.
And more-over running previous year car, will mean saving money for them.

- 8 teams means some small teams will disappear, but won't they disappear or be threaten anyway? (Sauber - FI - Manors situations)

- I guess the mechanics and engineers will prefer a third car contract at McLaren rather than a "not sure to be paid" contract at Manor

- The cake of TV rights will be shared differently

- The ratio of influence/power between small/big teams and Bernie will be totally different... it will turn into "All Teams against Bernie", and maybe they'll start to negotiate in the interest of the sport (globally) instead of pushing for their own interest (again think about the position of FI concerning Manor racing with 2014 car, or TV rights sharing, or any decision taken...)

[JacobP]

Originally Posted by stevemorse

I,m not sure if there is a thread already for this.
Due to the financial struggle of smaller teams in F1,wouldn't it be better for the top six teams to have 3 car teams.
But the third car be driven by someone under the age of 25 or less than 2 years experience in F1.

The idea that there exist a well defined "top six teams" is quite preposterous. There exist only the top three corporate teams: RedBull, Mercedes, and Ferrari. The rest are struggling. I would have wanted to say that these together with McLaren form the "top four", but the last year, when McLaren couldn't beat Williams, and this year, where McLaren qualified dead last makes me wonder if McLaren is even a top six team. Moreover, with all due respect, a huge part of the success of the Williams team is simply due to Williams wisely choosing to use the dominant Mercedes engines, and also due to Williams receiving a certain amount of TV rights money due to simply "being Williams".

Make no mistake. There are no well defined "top six" teams in F1. At best, there may be "top four" well funded teams. And as soon as you allow the three car teams, you basically throw the teams outside of this "top four" under the bus. BAD IDEA.

A much better idea is to allow teams to use a customer chassis, either bought from one of the top teams, or from an outside manufacturer, like Dallara. This way, an average midfield team could have access to racing with a competent chassis at a reasonable cost.

Personally, I hate the idea of F1 turning into LMP1, where there are indeed only three or four teams fighting for the top honors and the rest of teams are a useless grid filler (like the LMP2 teams).

[Paradise City]

They should increase the flow of teams into the sport subject to certain auditory requirements.

[NaBUru38]

Customer cars

Customer cars

Customer cars

[Born Racer]

If the revenues were distributed much more evenly, we could even still have 10 teams and 3 cars per team. Imagine how much fun that would be!

Qualifying for the top 26 places on the grid (well, it was 26 in the 1990s.)

Three-car teams in the present climate would have a detrimental effect on finances because it would mean even more dominance by the top teams (Mercedes would hog the podium for instance right now instead of just having a stranglehold on the top two) and would push lower teams out of points positions, thereby exacerbating the negative financial problem that these teams experience. The likes of Force India and a lot of other decent teams you could name would struggle to get decent points this year.

In a way, I like your idea of less experienced drivers having the 3rd seat in principle (it keeps new blood in F1) but I think we should be pushing for drivers getting in on merit as much as possible (so even more experienced drivers where appropriate for a seat) and certainly not having a kind of driver ageism. Plus, it's hardly as though young drivers have trouble getting into Formula 1 these days. Look at Kvyat, Sainz and above all, Verstappen!

The source of the problem is the financing and it's that that needs dealing with. In my opinion, no more special payments to Ferrari for long-term service to the sport. Simply prize money on a much more evenly-distributed scale and CVC getting less of it (although I think that bed has been made and now needs lying in). I like the idea of the teams getting more, but more important I think is for it to be much more evenly-distributed revenue and for the sport to somehow become a bit cheaper to run in, because giving teams more of the pie is at odds with the idea of the teams spending less.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Customer cars

Customer cars

Customer cars

I have thought that this is the way to go for a quite some time now...

[Born Racer]

If we had that now, every driver would be talking to their team bosses like Janis Joplin.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

If we had that now, every driver would be talking to their team bosses like Janis Joplin.

I don't understand ????

[Born Racer]

Iconic though they are, she never sang "Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Ferrari?".

[GT6]

i think you had to be over a certain age to get that one

[TheMightyM]

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends,
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

— Main lyrics from the short song “Mercedes Benz” by Janis Joplin. The irony was that Joplin herself had a Porsche. “Mercedes Benz” is among the last songs recorded by Joplin before her death by heroin overdose in October 1970. “Mercedes Benz” appears on the album Pearl, which was released in January 1971.