F1 News
'We all applaud it, but it has to add value'
- GPblog.com
There is more and more talk about it in Formula 1: how do we get more drivers on the grid? Many different solutions have been discussed, and Alpine director Marcin Budkowski believes more teams on the grid would be better to expand Formula 1 than adding a third car to the already existing teams.
Currently, there are 20 cars competing in each race, but this ensures that there are few opportunities for young emerging talents to make a move into Formula One. This problem continues to arise and so more and more thought is being given to possible solutions.
A much-discussed solution is the addition of a third car for a rookie to get more drivers into the sport. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is a great advocate of this. But Budkowski doesn't entirely agree and sees attracting new teams as a better approach.
"It would be good to have more teams in Formula 1. I think we would all welcome that. But they need to be the right teams and they need to bring value to the sport and I think that’s one of the reasons that the anti-dilution fee was brought in, to make sure that people who come are really financially sound and solid, to be able to run a Formula 1 team," the Pole tells f1i.com.
Is the entry fee a thing of the past?
Adding teams to Formula 1 could mean that the entry fee becomes something of the past. Budkowski does admit that this is not or will not be his decision.
"Should that be scrapped? To be honest, it’s a question for the commercial rights holder, a question for Stefano [Domenicali, F1 CEO] in that case. But yeah, more teams would bring more diversity to the sport, bring more drivers in the sport for sure," Budkowski said.