FIA president shows no sign of backing down over Andretti issue as he insists that there is no reason not to have as many as 12 teams.
At a time when the various interested parties insist that 10 teams is more than enough, fans of a certain vintage will recall those heady days of the late 80s and early 90s when as many as 40 drivers would turn up, necessitating the infamous early morning pre – qualifying sessions that would reduce the field to a far more manageable 30 entries ahead of qualifying.
Eurobrun, Coloni, Onyx, Zakspeed, Rial, AGS… race after race they turned up, piloted by the likes of Gregor Foitek, Pierre-Henri Raphanel, Volker Weidler, Enrico Bertaggia and Claudio Langes.
Though one can understand the need not to return to those days, the sport is clearly at odds over whether there is a need to expand the current grid from 20 to 22 or 24.
The likes of Mercedes and Ferrari talk of DNA and the worthiness of new entries, while reports suggest that in lieu of the sport’s increasing popularity the teams are calling for the $200m ‘dilution payment’ to be increased to as much as $600m.
If nothing else, such a demand ends all talk of DNA and worthiness and reinforces the belief that this is simply about money.
We’ve established they’re whores, now let’s agree on the price.
Speaking on a visit to the Dakar rally raid, Ben Sulayem doubled down on his social media comment at the weekend, urging the need for more teams on the grid.
“In general, if we look at the sustainability of Formula 1, we have to open it up to other brands,” he said.
“We can have up to twelve teams on the grid,” he continued. “An OEM will help make Formula 1 better and I see no reason for which we should not welcome new teams, especially the Americans.
“We have three races there already this year. We welcome any proposal to be one of the twelve teams. We accept good teams, even if they are small, as is the case with Haas.
“We hope that things will change and we will be able to have a proper eleventh team, we’ll see what happens.”
According to Reuters, a “senior figure” in the sport insists that a “strong majority” of teams are against expanding the grid, even to eleven teams.
Ignoring the rumored $600m dilution payment which would clearly ease their pain, one feels that some of those current teams may have forgotten what brought them into the sport in the first place… as opposed to what keeps them there now.
We know for an absolute fact that as recently as last year Gene Haas was still looking to sell his team, and if we are looking at ‘worthiness’ and the rest of it, romanticism aside, what exactly does Haas bring to the sport?
Indeed – and we find it almost impossible to believe we are writing this – what, in its current guise, does Williams, Britain’s most successful team in terms of constructors’ titles, bring to the table other than its historic name? And let’s not forget that it was the Grove outfit – currently without a team principal or technical director and owned by an American investment firm – that Toto Wolff allowed his foot in the F1 door so to speak.
All this aside however, there is the increasing feeling that F1 and Ben Sulayem are at odds and possibly heading towards a confrontation, for, in the face of the reaction to his tweet at the weekend, the FIA president is clearly not for turning and is actually publicly doubling down on his claim.
The two have appeared at odds almost from the time he was elected, just six days after the infamous 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
A cynic might suggest that there is more to this than meets the eye.
