Have 20 Strong Cars Than an Unwanted Team – Haas F1 Boss

The Haas F1 team believe that F1 should not add more team entries. At least until all teams are financially stable, enough to avoid problems like the one Force India are facing.

The Force India team has finished fourth in the constructors’ championship for two consecutive seasons. However, they went into administration prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix to try to protect the team against rising debts.

Haas is the youngest of the current 10 teams on the F1 grid. The American team joined the fray back in 2016.

Last year, FIA president Jean Todt said that there was the chance to add new entries as early as 2019. However, he later admitted were no “serious” approaches by potential teams.

Haas team boss Gunther Steiner pulled his weight behind rivals, Force India. He dubbed them as “a team which deserves to be here”. He hopes that they find a sensible, long-term backer for the future.

“I hope it’s the right people, that’s the only thing,” he said. “Somebody who buys it [who] is here to stay, and all the people keep their jobs and [F1 can] keep on going with 10 team in the future.

“You can race with 18 cars but I think 10 teams is a very healthy number. I’d rather have 20 strong cars than somebody who shouldn’t be here. I think we should look after the 10 teams we have.

“Everybody says we should have 11 and 12 teams. There are 10 teams struggling to stay alive, so why do we worry about the 11.

“Should we not worry to keep the 10 here in business? Let’s be realistic, not always this, ‘Oh we want more’.”

The last time F1 had numerous new teams was 2010, when Lotus, HRT and Virgin joined the grid. All three teams entered under the promise of a cost cap. This idea has been tabled yet again for 2021. However, the cost cap never materialised and they all subsequently folded.

HRT made it as far as the end of the 2012 season. Meanwhile Lotus was renamed Caterham after two seasons then went into administration at the end of 2014.

Virgin was the longest surviving of the three. They were rechristened Marussia and was the only new team to ever score points. This came, courtesy the late Jules Bianchi’s ninth place in Monaco in 2014.

Sadly, they too fell into administration later that year. Although they did survive as Marussia/Manor for 2015 before becoming a new entity Manor at the end of 2016.

Fortunately, in Force India’s case, they appear far healthier than the fated three teams that fell into administration.