06/03/2015
NEWS STORY
FIA president Jean Todt has revealed that he is considering putting out tenders for new teams to enter the sport.
It seems incredible, but with HRT long gone, Caterham's limp, tired body still warm and Marussia seeking to contest the 2015 season on peanuts, the FIA president Jean Todt - that's him pictured with Niki Lauda in case you haven't seen him recently and forget what he looks like - is seriously considering opening up a fresh tender process to encourage more new teams.
"I am not happy for Marussia and Caterham and I sympathize for them, but it has always happened," he told the New York Times. "But in 2016 we have a new team coming, and we may make a tender again for one or two teams to encourage teams. And try to reduce the costs."
Whilst anticipating the arrival of a fully-fledged American F1 team, many still doubt the way Gene Haas has gone about things, effectively creating a new team from the ground-up rather than buying any one of a number of existing outfits. Then there is the whole concept of why a successful businessman, such as Haas, would feel the need to tread the same path many other have trod without success.
That's a question for Mr Haas of course; however, whilst agreeing that engine costs need to be looked at "that is one of the things that is being addressed to find a solution," Todt assures us, there doesn't appear to be any sign of the sort of budget restrictions that will prevent others going the same way as HRT and Caterham, certainly whilst the big teams exercise such power.
Todt, who has made no secret of his political aspirations, which go way beyond motor sport, also remains a staunch supporter of the new formula introduced in 2014, even though it drove costs ever higher.
"I feel it is one of the few sensible decisions which has been taken over the last period," he said. "Formula One is the pinnacle of motor sport, so we must be an example to society. It is not all happening in a kind of closed golden-gated community where nothing is happening on the other side of the world."