Originally Posted by V12
If you are talking about more Andrea Modas and Lifes then I'd be inclined to agree with you, but the likes of Scuderia Italia, Rial, AGS, Coloni, AGS, Zakspeed etc. etc. all did F1 more good than harm IMO, yes they were never going to win, or even trouble the points scorers on even a semi-regular basis, but ultimately someone has to be last, as you say it allowed more young drivers into the sport to learn their trade.
I've mentioned in the IndyCar and former Champ Car forums before that the influx of foreign "F1 rejects" into their forms of racing are IMO a direct consequence of the restricting of opportunities in F1. Whereas in the past a Doornbos, Wilson, Viso, Conway, or going a few years further back Castroneves, Kanaan, Junqueira or Franchitti, would have been attempting to qualify for GPs at a lower team and attempting to work their way up, they are now forced to seek pastures new once they have made as much progress in F1 feeder series as they can expect to.
Looking at the best of the racing teams outside of F1, the likes of ART, Arden, iSport, Super Nova, Carlin etc. I don't think any of them would come into F1 and do a bad job. Yes they'd have limited resources and would be near the back, initially at least, and some might fail in the long run, but if they want to give it ago then all power to them I say. But it's impossible in a non-contrived situation for an entire field of cars to be all similarly competitive.
Like in football, teams newly promoted to the Premier League are in all certainty going to struggle against the big boys and probably go back down within two seasons, but at least the opportunity is handed to them, nobody is suggesting making the PL smaller and a "closed shop" for the sake of quality, or if they are they are in the minority.
If the choice is between the 20 cars we have now, or those same 20 cars with six extra cars a little bit slower than the existing backmarkers, I know what I'd choose.