Symonds: customer cars not good for F1

The issue of chassis sharing has been a hot topic of the winter, as teams keep a close eye on the plans of Super Aguri and Toro Rosso for 2007, but there are also major worries emerging about what will happen in 2008.

BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen was the first to voice his fear that the arrival of customer cars could force independent teams into supporting their manufacturer partners - robbing the sport of the strong independent teams that the rules were originally designed to create.

He told autosport.com in December: "This is a really serious issue. I think it will change the face of F1.

"My fear is that there will be independent teams in the future who are not independent. I think every manufacturer would certainly think about having a second team, but it would lead to a situation of one team controlling four cars - and maybe using three cars to support the top driver."

Symonds has backed up the view that the end result will be a sport dominated by just six four-car manufacturer teams.

"If you want to ask whether customer cars are good for F1, then I am not so convinced," said Symonds.

"I think this idea that allowing customer cars will maintain strong independent teams is disappearing. It is looking more and more likely that manufacturers will have satellite teams and we will end up with six manufacturers controlling 24 cars."

When asked whether his fears were similar to those expressed by Theissen, Symonds said: "Yeah, it is my fear too.

"I am not saying it will not work, but unless we are very careful then it may not work. And I am not quite sure what we can do to be careful - it might be a bit of a fait accompli now."

Despite his feelings about the impact of customer cars in 2008, Symonds is not concerned about the controversy surrounding Super Aguri and Toro Rosso.

"If you say that in 2008 you can do it (run customer cars), then does it really matter about things being pushed forward a year," he said. "Many other rules have been pushed forward a year, is it really a big deal?

"On that basis, you would say it is a storm in a teacup. But it is easy for me to say that from a Renault perspective. If I was Spyker, I would not at all happy about it. Rules are rules."