Haas F1 Team have expressed their concerns about Formula 1 allowing more teams to enter the sport unless all those which are currently competing are financially stable.
This follows Sahara Force India F1 Team falling into administration the Friday before the Hungarian Grand Prix, as a means of protection for staff due to the money the Silverstone-based team owed to creditors.
However, they were saved by a consortium led by businessman Lawrence Stroll on Tuesday, who found a buyer who was able to guarantee revenue for the foreseeable future, reinstating all 405 jobs in the team which had been at stake.
Haas are the most recent addition to the grid, having entered the sport in 2016.
Jean Todt, FIA President said that there was an opportunity last year to let new teams join the grid as early as 2019, but said that no “serious” approaches had been made.
Haas’ Team Principal, Gunther Steiner, said that Force India are a “team which deserves to be here”.
“You can race with eighteen cars but I think ten teams is a very healthy number. I’d rather have twenty strong cars than somebody who shouldn’t be here. I think we should look after the ten teams we have.” he added.
Steiner did not seem to be particularly worried about the desire to add more teams to the grid.
“Everybody says we should have eleven and twelve teams. They are ten teams struggling to stay alive, so why do we worry about the eleven.”
“Should we not worry to keep the ten here in business? Let’s be realistic, not always this, ‘Oh we want more’.”
2010 saw an influx of new teams came in the sport with Lotus, HRT and Virgin, but all teams failed.
Virgin became Marussia, and was the only team of the three to score a point, thanks to Jules Bianchi‘s stellar drive in Monaco in 2014.
