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
Indy500 said:
Plenty of 3 and 4-car teams in other motorsport categories. They're also allowed to carry individual sponsorship liveries.
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There are a number of regulations that would prevent this being possible.

As a number of people have said, this isn't a wholly stupid idea, but its implementation requires a number of other changes that seem rather unlikely to happen.
 
Guerrilla said:
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.
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This pretty much sums up my thoughts also.
 
Heres an idea, instead of a constructors title (or maybe even alongside it), how about a Teams Championship?

So constructors can, if they wish, run 4 cars rather than 2, but the second 2 need to be run under a second team? Like the multiple teams MSport used to supply Ford WRC cars too. So for example, Haas racing would run as their own team, but run a Ferrari car. Effectively they would be a customer team, but as they would not be a constructor they would get all the upgrades the Ferrari main car gets. Basically what Red Bull did with Toro Rosso for a couple of years. Also, how F1 used to be in the 60's and 70's, all be it with second hand cars. Or Super Aguri and Honda.
 
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Voted potato, because it isn't a choice. Teams may field three cars if there are fewer than nine entrants in the WCC. Technically it's optional, but as there's no rule saying only the first two finishers in each team count it would for all practical purposes be mandatory.
 
Skeeter said:
Heres an idea, instead of a constructors title (or maybe even alongside it), how about a Teams Championship?

So constructors can, if they wish, run 4 cars rather than 2, but the second 2 need to be run under a second team? Like the multiple teams MSport used to supply Ford WRC cars too. So for example, Haas racing would run as their own team, but run a Ferrari car. Effectively they would be a customer team, but as they would not be a constructor they would get all the upgrades the Ferrari main car gets. Basically what Red Bull did with Toro Rosso for a couple of years. Also, how F1 used to be in the 60's and 70's, all be it with second hand cars. Or Super Aguri and Honda.
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Yea that could work... It'd need to be really well defined the limit between the 2 teams though, otherwise it could just be a team running 4 cars in all but name.
 
Guerrilla said:
Yea that could work... It'd need to be really well defined the limit between the 2 teams though, otherwise it could just be a team running 4 cars in all but name.
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Thats fine though, because they are still 2 separate teams. It could be as blatant as being called Ferrari 2, but it still means each team only has 2 cars, and theres no advantage to some teams running more cars than others.

Obviously there would be political links between the teams that could be exploited, but thats not really and different to now with teams having ties to other teams, or running other teams drivers, etc.
 
I don't think this is a bad idea in principle, and the cost won't be as high as +50% as some are making out. Given that the car development must be one of the most expensive areas, it effectively gives you economies of scale - the development costs are only paid once, and if shared by 3 cars, the cost per car is reduced. Obviously the total cost goes up.

This is where the "in principle" bit comes in. As the teams get 70% of the revenue (I believe) and only the top 10 currently get any at all, if we were to reduce to 8 teams, every team will always receive prize money, and all will get a higher amount than previously (this could also be used to close the gap between last and first). The additional car, and therefore presence should bring more sponsorship money too, as there's a potential additional 50% viewing exposure.

If the things above don't happen, then clearly it will just be more expensive and will knock the mid-field teams out, but if managed correctly, this could effectively reduce costs/car and increase revenue earned. The question is if the increased cost of another car is outweighed by the increase in revenue.
 
Skeeter said:
Thats fine though, because they are still 2 separate teams. It could be as blatant as being called Ferrari 2, but it still means each team only has 2 cars, and theres no advantage to some teams running more cars than others.

Obviously there would be political links between the teams that could be exploited, but thats not really and different to now with teams having ties to other teams, or running other teams drivers, etc.
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It'd be good as it'd sort the points problem out, I'm not keen on the 2 nominated cars or whatever and would also stop 1 car being the whipping boy in a 3 car team, to be used exclusively as a test bed and road block, but I do think they'd have to try to ensure it wouldn't jsut end up with 2 teams being able to work together. So they couldn't be letting their preferred driver over take 2-3 cars or ending up with RB1 and RB2 teams being 1st-4th in the Championship somehow.
 
Gone with no. As much as I want to see a full grid I can't see that 3 car teams is the answer in the long run. (It may be ok in the short term if teams do drop out for next year)

I think they need to look at how the money is shared between the teams and cost cutting but this won't be easy.

Didn't McLaren say it was too late to have a third car for next year?
 
The teams have gone to Bernie saying ticket prices are too high, and his response was to suggest the teams agree to take less commercial rights money.

So FOM want to give the teams less, while the FIA want to make F1 cost more. Good going guys!

/sarcastic face.
 
Against.
No matter how you structure the points system imagine this year
Mercedes would already have the championship in the bag

A lot of times when one car is dominant one hope for others is reliability. If one car went out every race and you could still easily lock out the top two spots

Podium lockouts could also be common.

It would be nice to have fewer more competitive teams but I think a budget cap is a better idea to tighten up the field. This tightens up the field but allows massive snooze fests

However.. If all teams were allowed to race like merc have been this year. The entertainment would be amazing. But you still would be likely to loose manufacturers rooted to negligible points
 
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I think it's difficult to predict how it will pan out, but I tend towards 'no'. I think we'd see the third car used to hamper other teams' race and run testing parts. I don't see how that will help improve the sport.
 
al4x said:
...Mercedes would already have the championship in the bag...
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Its not quite that simple. While with 3 cars Mercedes may have bagged many more points per round so far, the amount they would have to attain to be beyond catching also increases as the points available is higher.

With 3 cars scoring the maximum from a weekend would be 58 rather than 43, so the lead needed would be 58 x number of races left. So at the moment with 6 (5) races left Mercedes would need a 348 point lead in a 3 car scoring formula, compared to the 258 they currently need to be unbeatable at this stage with 2 cars scoring.

/Man maths. Lunch time.
 
Mr Jack said:
Only two cars would be allowed to score though.

How is that intended to work, btw? If we get Merc, Merc, Merc, Ferrari does the Ferrari get 15 points for 3rd or 12 points for 4th?
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That would be if some teams could run 3 cars while others run 2, which would be a rather confusing way to do it. I've assumed the FIA would see sense and have 8 teams running 3 cars each, rather than a mish mash.

As for some cars not scoring points, in championships where this has happened its usually just the Constructors championship they don't score in, the Drivers championship points is unaffected.

So in your example, Ferrari the team get 15 points, while the driver gets 12. Nice and confusing :p
 
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