F2 grid to expand to 24 cars

Palmer revealed that 16 drivers had now signed up for the series, and believes its low-cost philosophy has been key to its success.

"We were originally only going to do 20 cars, but I could see pretty early on that it was going to be a big success, and we've got 24 that we're going to run - that's the maximum," said Palmer during the Autosport International Show.

"I could see the level of interest we had. I'm sure there are lots of drivers out there who would love to find 1.5 million (Euro) for GP2, 750,000 for Formula Renault 3.5 or 650,000 for F3, but just don't understand how difficult it is to find that sort of money in the current climate.

"I think that by the time Formula Two is full in a couple of weeks, there are going to be a lot of drivers that feel that they've missed the boat.

"It's taken off far quicker than I've expected, there's some great talent in there and it's going to be looked at very seriously by the Formula One teams."

He added that the participants yet to be announced included additional members of Red Bull's young driver scheme.

"I think it's very significant that Red Bull have chosen Formula Two and are actually going to have three cars in it - there's another driver who is a great talent that hasn't been announced yet," said Palmer.

"Having got Robert Wickens, Julien Jousse, Sebastian Hohenthal and some top drivers from Formula Palmer Audi, I think even in our first year we're going to have a stronger line-up in Formula Two than anything else."

The new F2 series commences at Valencia at the end of May.