FIA President Jean Todt would like to see 12 teams in Formula 1, but at the same time prefers quality over quantity while admitting that current team chiefs might object to splitting the pie with another two teams.
Formula 1 last had 12 teams back in 2012 when the now-defunct HRT, Caterham and Marussia were still involved. Since then the trio are long gone however Haas arrived on the scene to bolster the grid to 20 cars which is still the case ahead of the 2019 season.
In light of the fact that a brand new F1 team project, with winning intent would cost hundreds of millions to launch, Todt was asked was what the ideal size grid would be for the pinnacle of the sport.
He replied, “Its always a long debate but, at the moment, we have ten stable teams. As you know we are talking together with the commercial rights holder and teams with regards to renewing the Concorde Agreement beyond 2020.”
“We are considering a lot of things and of course, for me, I think it will better to have twelve teams… if you speak about that to the actual team principals they are not very happy about it because of course, it will change the financial distribution so it will be different for them.”
“But it’s part of discussions but the most important is not so much about the number of the teams but the quality of teams and the quality of the show. That’s something that we fully agree together with Formula 1, with Chase Carey and his team. We are working very closely together.”
Todt posed for photographers with the bigwigs of all the FIA championships including F1 supremo Chase Carey and his Formula E counterpart Alejandro Agag, after which the President said it “was an important moment when we were hosting all the FIA championship promoters together and working all together for the good of the sport.”
Todt was speaking during the opening day of the Geneva Motor Show.