General
Steiner on more teams in F1: 'Needs to be an upside for current teams'
- Toby McLuskie
Guenther Steiner has set yet another important condition for the FOM and Liberty Media if they want more teams in Formula 1 in the future. The Haas F1 team boss believes that the racing teams must improve financially and, moreover, he believes it is important that newcomers do not disappear from the scene within two or three years.
Steiner is not necessarily against more teams in Formula 1, but he believes they should add value. For the sport and its fans, but certainly also for the current racing teams. "Saying it's 11-12, I'm not in a position to know what they bring to the sport. But I think if you've got more teams, there needs to be an upside for the 10 which are here. And then I think nobody will have anything against it."
Currently, prize money is shared among ten teams, but if an 11th and 12th team are added, everyone has to make do with a bit less. That's what the teams fit for and so the pie has to get bigger. Steiner also states that there will be a lot more prize money availability when new teams are added to the grid.
Must add value
"FIA and FOM are looking into it and see if they can bring an upside to the 10 stakeholders, as the guy said here, which are very solid now, all 10 of them. We didn't have that for a long time. The competition is getting closer as well. Financially, everybody's stable. Why should we rock that boat, you know, if there is not more coming to us," Steiner said in the Miami press conference.