Outside Line: Three-Car, One-Car and Customer Teams Part II

Let's get the obvious out of the way: this isn't 1975. Cars don't break down left-and-right, and it's no longer a rarity to have half the grid finish, it's the minimum expectation. As such, we can't just let

every team run a third car and call it a day.

Inevitably that would lead to situations where one team occupies the entire podium, or three occupy the top nine. You could make it so only a team's top-two cars score points, but then things get very confusing very fast – if Mercedes goes 1-2-3 and Ferrari 4-5-6, does Ferrari get points for third and fourth? What about the team behind them?

In any case, a solution which pushes teams like Sauber and Haas further out of the limelight is unlikely to be accepted – even if the points-paying places were extended, cameras and sponsors are far less likely to be interested when you're fighting for twelfth instead of fifth.

Instead, the onus should squarely be on helping the young drivers, if not the lower teams as well. This can be achieved in several ways:

The first – an idea of GP247's own Paul Velasco – is to allow only

The second is to allow one-car teams, either with a Haas-style "technical partnership" where certain components are outsourced, or with customer cars from the previous season – the added caveat being that the whole team must be a "youth" team relative to the jobs going, with a 25-and-under driver, 35-and-under technical staff, and 12-year-old social media manager.

Finally, a more simple solution (in some ways) would be to reintroduce non-championship F1 races. Especially with Ross Brawn admitting Liberty is looking into expanding the calendar, using some of those events as a testing ground for different drivers stops those races from devaluing actual championship GPs but gives them an intrigue all their own.

In each solution, the number of available seats for up-and-coming drivers raises considerably, although none of them are perfect. Even if you take out the big boys, three-car teams are sure to increase the use of strategic blocking and the like, while also running into the same points-based confusion.

One-car teams would avoid those issues, but be more expensive to set-up and maintain than just adding a car to an existing team, and that might mean more Marcus Ericssons, not less of them. Similarly with non-championship GPs, extra races means extra costs, and there's no guarantee they will generate the interest year-after-year to cover them financially.

That said, the hope would be that the costs are offset by the earning potential. Third cars could run a different livery, or just help secure a deal for cheaper engines like with Esteban Ocon and Mercedes.

Same with single car teams, who would also be earning some amount of prizemoney. In non-championship races, use Mario Andretti's idea and invite the reigning IndyCar, WEC, MotoGP, etc champions to take one of the seats, increasing eyeballs while also giving a legitimate prospect a run.

In any case, if things stay as they are, things are only going to get worse for future generations of drivers. Major teams are only going to continue developing young drivers, but unless they want to all shell out the $100 million+ for their own Toro Rosso-style junior outfit, the only recourse is to hope they don't get outbid for a seat at a lower team that needs every penny it can get.

To be clear, this isn't to say pay drivers are to blame -- F1 has always had them, always will, and some have been very, very good -- but on a 20-car grid, the balance has simply swung too far in their favour. All it takes is a few more open spots to swing it back, and if that means the whole sport needs a shakeup, then so be it.

https://www.grandprix247.com/2018/09/22/outside-line-three-car-one-car-and-customer-teams-part-i/