Palmer 'thrilled' over F2 tender win

Palmer's company, MotorSport Vision, has commissioned the Williams Formula One team to design the car, which will be powered by turbocharged Audi engines.

Palmer, a Formula Two champion in 1983, is the founder of the Formula Palmer Audi series, and he reckons his experience in running the championship played an important role in winning the tender.

The FIA did not say what other companies had applied.

"Obviously I'm absolutely thrilled that our bid has been accepted," Palmer told autosport.com. "I think MSV's experience in a range of areas has been important.

"There's clearly the fact that we have run FPA for many, many years and that has given us a lot of experience with that.

"But also with the advent of taking over the circuits four years ago, race event organisation and as a promoter - this year we took over the promotion and the commercial rights of the British Superbike Championship, which is now doing extremely well.

"So we've got a pretty broad base of activities and experience, which I think has helped us in this bid."

The FIA said the cost per driver to complete a full season would be less than 250,000 Euro ($350,300).

And Palmer is convinced the championship will allow every participant to be fighting for victory.

"I launched FPA 11 years ago with the objective of providing aspiring Formula One drivers with a fairer, more affordable series in which to learn and prove themselves," he added. "And that was at a junior level, but we've run that for 11 years and this has been the most successful year yet of it.

"Despite the fact that the car has been around for quite some time, and is a completely different level of sophistication from the Formula Two car that we're doing, that experience really has been invaluable.

"I think we've proved the concept very well indeed. FPA has represented extraordinary value for money and there are a lot of drivers that would have never moved on had it not been for that.

"I know too that the FIA has been extremely keen to increase the accessibility of motorsport at a high level and see costs reduced. And they key thing is, what's important with this is reducing costs for a level of performance that means you can win, not just take part.

"It's all very well saying you can run a car on half of a full budget, but you're not going to win with that. I think everybody knows that in various other formulae.

"The great thing about running it in the way that we will do is that if you can afford the championship, you know that whoever wins the championship is going to pay no more than the price that it is sold at. And that is going to be the same price for everybody."