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

[413x]

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.

It would be mathematically possible but not realistically.
It's too much 'tampering'
3rd driver used as a roadblock if no points. Still can push others down grid
I dunno. Maybe it would be better to weed out the back markers

 

[Skeeter]

That's quite an assumption to make given the current running!

A very valid point.

Wouldn't it be cheaper having fewer teams will three cars compared with having more teams with two cars (same number of cars overall in each example - so 24 car with 12 teams or 24 car with 8 teams)? Less replication of R+D, better economies of scale, etc?

The teams don't all run under a collective budget, they each have their own. So while collectively your maths may be correct, its the teams budgets that are the problem. Imagine it costs £24m to run a 24 car grid. 12 teams of 2 cars will cost on average £2m a team, while 8 teams of 3 cars would cost £3m per team. And it's the individual teams being unable to afford to compete that's spurred this idea.

We are likely to lose at least 2 teams from the grid next year due to the cost. I don't think making F1 even more expensive for a team to compete in is the right way to react to that.

 

[mmj_uk]

I would rather they moved to 1 car per team to get rid of constructors interfering with the outcome of the drivers championship, the immediate issue with that though is a lack of teams to make a 20 car field but perhaps running a single car would make F1 cheaper and more attractive to potential new teams?

 

[Skeeter]

How does a team running multiple cars "interfere" with the drivers championship?

 

[bru]

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned, is something that Martin Brundle said a few races ago. For most of the tracks currently on the calendar the pit complexes cannot support three car teams in the way that current F1 works. It would either involve rather inflated costs to occupy two garages, or massive financial investment by the track owners to build new pit complexes.
Either way there would have to be significant changes to the way things are currently done, much of which would be very costly.

Overall a stupid idea in my opinion.

 

[Skeeter]

I'm not sure what the issue would be? Currently F1 pitlanes can cope with 24 cars, why wouldn't they be able too if there were 3 car teams, but still only 24 cars?

Most of the top teams often get 3 or 4 garages, while the lower teams get 2. Moving to 3 car teams would just see the top teams get 5 or 6 garages, and the bottom teams 3. Same number of cars, same number of garages? No?

 

[FrankJH]

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.

I dont see an issue with only two cars scoring points designated at the beginning of the season. 3rd seat used for testing / young drivers etc (and totally excluded from the standings).

I dont think this would be too confusing for fans.

I think having three car teams and ALL scoring points is just going to cause three teams to end up being ultra competitive and the likes of Sauber , Force India, marrusia and everyone else to fight over 10th place (which is completely pointless).

Of course Ferrari / Merc/ Williams/McLaren will have the odd failure, but given how (in general ) there havent been that many technical failures - reliability will only improve even better next season and onwards.


edit - also in my example I would say 3rd car doesnt score any points in any championship not just Constructors.

 

[Skeeter]

So would the 3rd car 'exist' in the results?

 

[mmj_uk]

How does a team running multiple cars "interfere" with the drivers championship?

Team orders, not being allowed to race for fear of hurting their constructors points haul, teams prioritising a particular driver. You'd have to be foolish to think that teams don't sometimes have a preferred a driver and do what they can to ensure that they come out on top at the expense of the other, particularly when drivers championships are concerned. e.g. having a young world champion is much preferred from a marketing perspective than someone who is about to retire.

 

[FrankJH]

So would the 3rd car 'exist' in the results?

No

The FIA / viewers gain by having a full grid and the team gain by seeing a young driver actually racing vs the pro's ( although whether this is worth the ~£20m the 3rd car is meant to cost to run I have no idea)

I suppose it would get very awkward if / when a third driver from team x was ahead of 1st / 2nd driver from team y who was well ahead of point scorer from X - should a non point scorer be "blocking " another team to assist his own teammate in catching up? Could get messy I guess but better tham potentially only 3 teams taking 90% of the points

 

[Skeeter]

So do they get a trophy if they come in the top 3?