Poll: Three car teams in F1 - yay or nay?

Three car teams in F1 - yay or nay?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 54 33.8%

  • No.

    Votes: 70 43.8%

  • Potato.

    Votes: 36 22.5%
  • Total voters
    160
No, I think it's a rubbish idea, especially as several teams want to join. Fia made such a balls up if selecting the new teams.
I also think it will damage the sport far more than any excitement that article makes up.

Why would a team join with so many top runners. How about mid pack teams, why would they race. Points would be artificial only 2 can score so then mid packs get some bonus points by default,

Don't like the idea one bit.
 
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Its a more sensible suggestion than customer cars, as the deveopment of the car remains with a single team. Customer cars would result in half the grid having testing spec machinery they would then struggle to upgrade.

There are a lot of good points about the 3 car teams, but for me there are 2 major points it would need to cover:

1. ALL teams must run 3 cars. Having a situation where some teams run 3 and some run 2, where some people score points and other don't, yet still count in the standings is going to just confuse and anger fans. The FIA are clearly worried about confusing fans, and unlike some of there recent knee jerk reactions, this would genuinely cause issues and should be avoided. So all teams run 3 cars, all cars score points.

2. Costs MUST be brought under control. I will be the first to admit I don't know how to do this, but they simply have to in order to get 8 teams on the grid capable of running 3 cars. Of the current 11 teams I think we can safely say Caterham, Marussia and Sauber would not be able to run 3 cars. Then Lotus, Williams and Force India must have to take a serious look at the books. And then Toro Rosso. Would Red Bull need to run a junior team if they have a 3rd car at RBR? I doubt it. I doubt it even more when you consider 2 teams would mean 6 cars and 1/4 of the grid?

Personally, right now, I think while better than customer cars, it wouldn't work. There are too many other things that need fixing first.

Actually... is this the FIAs knee jerk reaction to teams looking like they might leave? So teams are leaving because they can't afford to compete, and the FIAs solution is to... make F1 cost 50% more to compete in!?
 
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Glaucus said:
No, I think it's a rubbish idea, especially as several teams want to join. Fia made such a balls up if selecting the new teams.
I also think it will damage the sport far more than any excitement that article makes up.

Why would a team join with so many top runners. How about mid pack teams, why would they race. Points would be artificial only 2 can score so then mid packs get some bonus points by default,

Don't like the idea one bit.
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As pointed out in the article, why bother having uncompetitive cars circulating at the back year after year? You can solve that and the lack of testing and new driver development in one go.

This is only if, as Skeeter says, every team has 3 cars and if several teams are going to drop any way - most likely Caterham, Marussia and Sauber (Toro Rosso would go if RB could run a third car no doubt). Personnel and kit could be moved to the other teams.

So instead of 11 teams and 22 cars, you could have say 8 teams and 24 cars of competitive cars.
 
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Duke said:
As pointed out in the article, why bother having uncompetitive cars circulating at the back year after year?
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That is a problem created entirely by the FIA themselves though, to be fair.

They had plenty of 'proper' racing teams they could have picked, but instead they chose political allies, and are now throwing them under the bus as they have no need for them.
 
Then 5 teams running 4 cars etc.

New teams want to come in, let them. Much rather have that then a field of same cars. The more cars a team have, the less reason for the middle teams to stay in the sport.

It's just a knee jerk reaction that would damage the sport and spiral down.

Three teams can lock out the top 10 and everyone else is left to scrap for a single point. Or more likely throw in the towel.

And I think the biggest nonsense in that article is three car teams would allow mid teams to get closer. why. I see no reason for that. Top teams would score more points, back teams score even less, so get less prize money. Top teams lock out the scoring positions, so harder to get sponsorship as you are no longer scoring points and being showed in TV. Top teams will also have three cars, so no advantage from the extra testing etc.

Actually is it that or only let the two top cars score points. What a stupid idea. so third driver always has to drop places. In fact he might have to let competitors through.

The who article in an insane propergander peace that makes no sense. the first three are all about how bad the teams are yawn who cares,
Most people want to see a third Ferrari, well no. They might be biggest team, they don't have 51% of fan base,
 
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Glaucus said:
Three teams can lock out the top 10 and everyone else is left to scrap for a single point. Or more likely throw in the towel.
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This is a valid point. Ferrari just lost their CEO because they are coming 7th. Imagine what they would do if they were coming 11th instead?

What would the casual fans think of 3 car Mercedes podiums this year?

Actually, imagine Vettel getting TWO team mates to move out his way and let him win?

Hmm... there isn't a simple solution here. There is a genuine threat that we may lose a couple of teams next year, but I don't think 3 car teams is the solution.
 
I voted yes, I have reservations over its implimentation but if done right then I have no objection to it. The fact that the FIA probably wont impliment it correctly is another matter.
 
Lopéz said:
They did it regularly in the old days, can't see the problem at all. In the 30s the German teams would regularly field 4 or 5 entries.
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And other teams would field a single car they bought second hand for one round with the spare change they found down the sofa. Neither could exist any more.
 
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TBH it's WAY too late to even consider third cars for next year. The car is more or less designed and all the Carbon Fibre stuff has been baked and cured already. To suddenly tell them to go back and make dozens more components for a third car is something that would normally take months. It's just not feasible at all to run a third car next year for the flyaway races as a minimum.

I'd expect Marussia to manage to stay on thanks to the points they got at Monaco meaning a significant amount of income at the end of the season. They're still teetering on the edge though. Caterham won't make it, Sauber have money problems too and Force India are nearly always skirting around going bust too.
 
No, it's bad enough having people whine and compare reliabilty stats and how unfair it is that Lewis has had 1 more retirement than one team mate let alone two!

Two cars is enough, just make it more financially viable to compete. Far too much money wasted on aero, standard front and rear wing for a start. It offers nothing to the industry.
 
I'd rather see more teams with 2 cars than fewer teams with 3 cars, but for them to have any chance to be competitive there would need to be some serious reevaluating to the costs involved which I can't see happening any time soon.

If anything the teams at the back of the grid are struggling more than ever with current F1 rules and costs which is obviously not good to watch, so maybe 3 car teams are the only realistic way we are likely to get more competitive racing and more drivers in competitive cars.

I just hope if they start going down this route it doesn't get worse and whoever the back teams end up being end up in the exact same position as the back teams now until we end up with a 2-3 team championship like what happened with WRC.
 
Wouldn't be against more car teams, but also more teams too. I'd love to see 30+ car grids.

Make the scoring go all the way through the field, say 50 for 1st and 1 pt for last. That way every position matters and even the backmarkers are encouraged to keep going late in the race.
 
I'm not fussed either way. Can see positives and negatives to both ways.

As has been said there used to be 3+ cars run by teams back in the 50s and 60s (and more on top entered by privateers), though to be fair the reliability back then was horrific, so you'd seldom see podium lockouts.

It might hamper genuinely promising teams from entering F1 (someone like Stewart GP or to a lesser extent BAR), but if the sustained standard expected of a new team is that of Marussia or Caterham, then it wouldn't be a shame if there was no space for them.

Perhaps nominate the third car before the season starts, make it ineligible for points from the off and give it less power or something so you don't see one team utterly dominating at front, though we've had that for much of the past 6 seasons anyway.
 
Plenty of 3 and 4-car teams in other motorsport categories. They're also allowed to carry individual sponsorship liveries. I think what will end up happening is Bernie will slip some money under the table to avoid less than 20 cars on the F1 grid.
 
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