Ecclestone eyes second division with old Red Bull

[CNR]

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns29927.html
"Bernie Ecclestone is working on a contingency plan in case the F1 grid continues to dwindle.

If Marussia's bid to return this year should fail, the pitlane looks set to house just nine teams in 2015.

And with other teams including Force India, Sauber and even Lotus thought to be stretched financially, there is a risk the grid could fall below 16 cars in the near future.

One oft-touted solution is three-car teams, but according to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, F1 supremo Ecclestone is working on another fix to boost grid numbers.

Correspondent Michael Schmidt claims Ecclestone quietly prefers the idea of a "second division" for the pinnacle of motor sport, "with 2013 Red Bulls and Mecachrome V8 engines".
"

why not make the teams (other then redbull) run a 3rd car for young up and coming drivers ?

[zako85]

why not make the teams (other then redbull) run a 3rd car for young up and coming drivers ?

This is not a solution. This would almost certainly lead to the destruction of all teams besides the top six or so. Let's see, RedBull, Mercedes, McLaren, Williams, and Ferrari. That would be already 15 cars. This means with the current car reliability, Sauber and Force India will have little chance to score any points at all, and will effectively assume the former positions of HRT, Marussia, and Caterham on the grid. This question is, what happens once Sauber and Force India go out of F1 business? Allow teams to use four cars?

The correct way to exit the crisis is to allow poorer teams to use a _current_ customer chassis, but E came up with a perverse idea that they should use a two year old chassis and an ancient engine, indeed creating a 2-tier grid.

[AndyL]

The correct way to exit the crisis is to allow poorer teams to use a _current_ customer chassis, but E came up with a perverse idea that they should use a two year old chassis and an ancient engine, indeed creating a 2-tier grid.

Either way there's a fine line to tread. If you had a scenario where McLaren and Ferrari are getting beaten every week by 4 Mercedes customer teams, that wouldn't be healthy. Where's the incentive for a sponsor to put their name on the McLaren or Ferrari when they could have it further up the grid for less money? F1 would slide towards becoming a de-facto one-make formula, as seems to have happened in F3.

To prevent that you'd have to put the customer teams at some sort of technical disadvantage, but then you have a two-tier system like what Bernie's thrown into the ring there.

[Doc Austin]

If Flavio is going to build the motors, will they blow up every time Alonso needs a safety car?

[driveace]

What is the problem with letting teams run last years cars.
These cars could then be the 2nd grade and a prize could be awarded for the winner of the 2nd team race

[anfield5]

Just the usual Ecclestone pre season bull-sh1t to stir things up, like his gold medal scheme, his overtaking lane scheme etc etc etc.

Oi Bernie! F1 fans are getting tired of your smoke screens and @#$%^ every year. Run F1 properly, fix everything you have broken, or hand the reins over to someone who is actually sane.

[Rollo]

Either way there's a fine line to tread. If you had a scenario where McLaren and Ferrari are getting beaten every week by 4 Mercedes customer teams, that wouldn't be healthy. Where's the incentive for a sponsor to put their name on the McLaren or Ferrari when they could have it further up the grid for less money?

McLaren and Ferrari wouldn't sell their latest bits to anyone would they?

To prevent that you'd have to put the customer teams at some sort of technical disadvantage, but then you have a two-tier system like what Bernie's thrown into the ring there.

That technical disadvantage is called "being old". In a world where microfortnights have big differences, having an old car will almost certainly not win you Grands Prix.

I agree with driveace. What is the problem with letting teams run last years' cars? Those cars ARE 2nd grade precisely because they are last years' cars.

The Toro Rosso STR1 was basically the Red Bull RB1. Maybe the power restriction had something to do with it but I suspect that they world had moved on; which is why the STR1 only scored a single point.

[CNR]

http://www.foxsports.com/motor/story...hnology-021115
Teams are now able to share more parts than previously – including items such as suspension and braking systems. However, Key says that Toro Rosso could not afford to wait for RBR to sign off on 2015 designs. In simple terms the senior team has resources that allow it to push R&D time to the limit, and build parts at the last minute.

1 way would be let small teams to design and build their monocoque and buy the other parts

[N. Jones]

This is not a solution..

It is for Bernie - less teams, more money. I know I am sounding like a broken record but that is all the man cares about.