When I was growing up watching Formula 1, there were always 22 cars. It seemed to be a kind of unwritten rule of F1, that there were 11 teams and 22 cars. Then, with rumblings from Honda and the arrival of Toyota, there seemed destined to be 12 or even more teams on the grid. Then 2001 came along and some wee teams went broke, and we were left with just ten teams. The 107% rule was ditched only a few years ago.
Races aren’t meant to start with fewer than 20 cars (we don’t mention Indianapolis), and I think there is meant to be space for 24 cars before, presumably, some form of pre-qualifying has to take place.
So I am struggling to see how Melbourne and other circuits could possibly be having problems with accommodating an 11th team in F1. A Grand Prix has been held there every year since 1996, yet:
Melbourne’s facilities were pretty mcuh state-of-the-art 10 years ago but nothing much has changed since then. The design is such that adding an additional building to the existing five units (the administration building plus four garage buildings) would not be easy and there would inevitably be questions of cost and whether building should be allowed.
If it’s the case that “nothing much has changed” since 1996, then why are they worrying about fitting in an 11th team when they managed it perfectly well a decade ago? Besides which, those responsible are surely aware that at any point in the future there could be more than ten teams in Formula 1?
- (This post was spurred on by Fun-1: No More Room At The Pits)
Garry
2 January 2006 18:46
#1
That does seem completely daft.
When I started watching F1 there were always 26 cars on the grid. That was a long time ago now though (hark at grandad). The Australian GP was held in Adelaide back then but I’m pretty sure there were more than 20 cars when they first moved to Melbourne.
Roy
17 January 2006 21:40
#2
Egos have also expanded over the past decade.