Why the F1 ladder can't produce new grand prix teams

Although Liberty Media's short-term priority is to ensure the ongoing health of Formula 1's 10 teams and 20-odd grands prix, the umbrella company for F1's commercial rights holder Formula One Management harbours a stated desire to increase both the number of entrants and rounds.

In a recent interview with Autosport, to be published on the September anniversary of Liberty's acquisition of management control over F1's commercial rights from CVC Capital Partners, F1 CEO Chase Carey stated "our priority in both cases is [to] make the teams strong, make the 21 races great. That's priority one, and then figure out from there."

However, Ross Brawn, FOM's managing director on the sporting side admitted that "our goal is that in the future we have 12 or even 13 teams", while Carey's objective of ultimately adding more rounds is well documented. Paddock wisdom has calendars growing to 25 races - the only realistic option Liberty has of boosting income given the pressures on hosting and broadcasting fees, although the teams will clamour for a slice of it.

As things stand though it will be easier to build a sustainable 25-round championship than grow grids to 24 cars, let alone 26, for the number of venues able to willingly stage a grand prix - whether on street courses or race circuits - comfortably exceeds the number of aspirant team owners with the considerable resources required to mount serious and sustainable grand prix challenges.

Folk speak wistfully of the late 1980s, when grands prix programmes listed 20 teams - at some events 13 cars vied for pre-qualifying slots in early Friday morning sessions, with the successful quartet going through to 30-car qualifying and the fastest 26 finally making it to the grid. However, any designs FOM may harbour of attracting two or three teams (four to six additional cars) within the next decade will prove difficult to realise.

The reasons have as much to do with economics as with the evolution of international motorsport. Where once a structured staircase took ambitious, able team bosses from junior classes through feeder formulae to F1, the sport's various spec racing categories and a plethora of one-make series no longer incentivise team bosses to build their own cars or install performance-enhancing facilities, for they will be banned.

In fact, so tightly controlled are the feeder series that F2 championship leader Charles Leclerc was recently stripped of his record-setting pole time in Budapest after using a differential fitted with [non-performance enhancing] shims that "did not comply with the material requirements laid out in the Dallara user manual". Go figure.

Not only do such tight regulations kill all technical creativity, but they reduce the attraction of motor racing as a breeding ground for graduate engineers. Equally, they remove any incentives current F2 (or lower) team bosses have to expand their facilities by incorporating fabrication and composite departments, let alone windtunnels or such as simulation rigs and CFD computers. Without those tools F1 operations cannot exist.

Tellingly, no current Formula 1 operation directly competes in the championship's feeder series

Where 1980s F2 grids featured 11 different chassis makes - five, namely Toleman, AGS, Merzario, Minardi and Spirit at some stage graduated to F1, while March and Lola were then active in both F1 and F2 - the current premier feeder formula specifies Dallara chassis, while the same company, the world's largest proprietary race car manufacturer, supplies GP3 hardware.

Tellingly, no current F1 operation directly competes in feeder series, although teams including Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren have over the years placed young drivers with F2 (formerly GP2) teams as part of their development.

Toleman, of course, became Benetton, winning the 1994-95 world championships with Michael Schumacher before being acquired by Renault. The team, still operating out of the original Toleman address in Enstone, won the 2005-06 titles with Fernando Alonso before being sold to Genii ahead of being re-acquired by the French manufacturer in 2016.

Minardi mutated into Italian GP-winning (via Sebastian Vettel) Scuderia Toro Rosso, having been owned between the tenures of founder Giancarlo Minardi and current owner Red Bull - which operates STR as its young driver development "nursery school" - by aviation entrepreneur Paul Stoddart, who now operates the F1 Experiences two-seater programme.

AGS, Merzario and a host of F2 graduates such as Onyx, Tecno, Surtees and Martini disappeared after poor F1 showings, but the point is the ladder made their graduations possible. What happened to F2? The category was dissolved after then F1-tsar Bernie Ecclestone persuaded the FIA to drop F2 and introduce F3000 in order to provide second lives for aging F1 kit. GP2 grew out of F3000, before being renamed "F2" this year.

F2's then-three engine suppliers - Hart, BMW and Honda - made it to F1 off the back of F2 engagements, with only first-named failing to win a grand prix (or championship), although Hart F1 engines came close to winning a race, and bagged podiums and pole positions. Current F2 engines are single make, being aging 4000cc Mecachrome V8s. Who?

F1's current entry list boasts plenty of teams with roots in other categories before graduating

Do not believe that spec chassis, engines and tyres contrive to make F2 (comparatively) more affordable, either: in 1980 no fewer than 55 drivers contested at least one race during the season; the F2 tally in Hungary a month ago was 20. Wherever monopolies exist - and what are single-supplier categories if not monopolies - there are seldom incentives to reduce costs, and according to F2 (and F3) team owners it certainly shows.

Analysis of the current F1 entry list shows the successful teams to have their roots in other categories before graduating to F1: Enzo Ferrari managed Alfa Romeo's (outsourced) race team before designing his own cars based on Fiat chassis, sports cars followed before he graduated to F1. Not only is Ferrari F1's oldest and grandest team, but its most successful, with 31 championships and 228 grands prix won.

Bruce McLaren's first own label car was a Can-Am racer, although in New Zealand the company founder had built and prepared his own race cars, then proved an invaluable member of Cooper's engineering team while racing (and winning) in F1. Income from sports car victories and car sales kept McLaren afloat until the team could focus on F1. 20 world titles and 182 victories in over 800 starts tell their own tale.

Frank Williams dabbled in F3 and traded in racing cars as he built up his team management skills. Various customer chassis enabled him to enter F1 before he constructed his own cars. True, (now Sir) Frank failed at his first attempt, but he persuaded a bright young engineer - Patrick Head - to join him and regrouped, laying the foundation for a team that has won a total of 16 world championships and 116 grands prix in over 600 starts.

Peter Sauber started off in racing by constructing a VW Beetle-based hillclimb special; larger sports cars followed before Mercedes provided first engines, then full works support in its successful quest to win Le Mans. Mission accomplished, the Three Pointed Star persuaded Sauber to go F1 racing, providing infrastructure and financial support. The first F1 Sauber carried "Concept by Mercedes-Benz" on its engine cover.

2010-13 double champion Red Bull Racing has its roots in Stewart Grand Prix, which in turn evolved out of Stewart Racing - founded by triple world champion Sir Jackie Stewart and his son Paul, which team ran cars in Formula Vauxhall, F3 and F3000 before turning its sights (and Milton Keynes factory) on F1. Consult Companies House records, and Red Bull Racing's registration number is the old Stewart Racing number.

Another team to operate under a historic company number is Mercedes. Originally founded as Tyrrell, it ran Mini Coopers in 1960s touring car racing before moving into F3, then F2 and eventually F1, initially using Matra and March chassis before constructing its own car. The team was sold to British American Racing, which moved it on to Honda before Brawn, then Mercedes acquired it.

Force India began life as Jordan Grand Prix, which had its roots in Eddie Jordan's successful F3 and F3000 operations. Again, competing in those junior series enabled the former driver to acquire the skills, commercial contacts and facilities required to graduate to F1 and ultimately win grands prix with cars bearing his own name. Two owners later the team lies fourth in the constructors' championship.

One of Jean Todt's most impressive achievements as FIA president has been the streamlining of the single-seater ladder

Contrast these pedigrees (and fates) with those of the last five teams to enter F1: USF1, HRT, Caterham, Virgin and Haas. The first four were start-ups attracted by then-FIA president Max Mosley's disastrous budget cap concept; the first one was stillborn and the next two gone within four years. Virgin (Manor), the only outfit based on a successful junior team, collapsed last year.

Haas, the most recent team to join the grid, seems set to stay - machine tool magnate Gene Haas's support permitting - but it was founded upon his experiences in NASCAR. Still, the team needed to strike costly partnership deals with Ferrari and Dallara, last-named boasting impressive facilities courtesy of its spec racing contracts. The question is, though: how many billionaires are prepared to make such a commitment?

One of Jean Todt's most laudable achievements as FIA president has been the streamlining of single-seater categories to eliminate a host of series competing against each other. Stefano Domenicali - the former Ferrari team boss-turned Lamborghini CEO who moonlights as chairman of the FIA's single-seater commission - has carried on the work started by his predecessor in that role Gerhard Berger, in restructuring the path from entry formulae to F1 via F4, F3 and F2.

"Thanks to the vision of the FIA president, we planned for the right way to create the pyramid," he said during the recent FIA Sport Conference in Geneva. "Since 2014 we have created 12 championships around the world," adding that the ultimate objective is for countries on both sides of the Atlantic to adopt largely common regulations to benchmarks for drivers.

Laudable as the initiative, though, is, the hardware is likely to be standardised up the ladder, with spec chassis, engines, gearboxes and tyres - once again providing little incentive for budding F1 team principals to gradually establish infrastructures that enable them to make that leap to F1. Even the biggest and best F2 teams are unable to design and build complete chassis in-house.

History teaches that the only way of attracting sustainable grids is to encourage existing teams to "grow" into F1, and the only way of achieving that is to revert to open junior categories to aspirant team owners. The stumbling block, though, is that Liberty owns both GP3 and F2, and is likely to be granted the rights to F3 once the category is combined with GP3 as part of the streamlining process...

Until single-seater racing again provides technical variety - and thus opportunities for engineers and team owners to graduate up the ladder, much as successful drivers progress from one formula to the next - Liberty's plans to grow grids "to 12 or even 13 teams" appears to be dependent upon attracting the patronage of billionaires or the support of motor manufacturers, neither of which provide sustainable solutions.