Originally Posted by woody2goody
You have to give these people a chance. So many people made, and still make, jokes about Minardi and Super Aguri, etc, but if you think about it, Minardi very rarely missed races due to DNQ's. They, and a lot of those other teams you mentioned were great independent racing teams who did very well to get into races and sometimes score points, etc.
You know what though? This budget cap may encourage others to try to make it. I'm all for pre-qualifying coming back if it's worth it. You never know who could spring a surprise given the right circumstances or some tricky weather. Look at Pierluigi Martini in ??Estoril 1992?? or Jean Alesi in Phoenix 1991. Even Barrichello at Silverstone last year. That was a worse car than what the aforementioned pair had lol.
One of the great things about NASCAR is that a lot of independents enter. For example, a 72-year-old almost qualifed for the Daytona 500 a couple of years ago: James Hylton. He was barely a second a lap off pole which wasn't bad considering he beat some guys in their 20s and 30s.
I love the small teams, and them making races and scoring points occasionally is what F1 is all about. That's another reason why the most wins sends out a negative message. I know points will count for the championship, but the idea of a points system is that everyone starts out equal. What's the point for these guys if they know the objective is impossible?