New teams for 2010 - Ecclestone

[Chuffer]

Bernie Ecclestone has revealed there will be three new teams joining Formula 1 next season.

The F1 supremo said 26 cars will be on the starting grid for the 2010 campaign and that a medals-system will determine the championship.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula...

Bernie Ecclestone said:

We'll have 26 cars on the grid next year - we've got a lot of people confirmed.

It won't be necessary to discuss it (the medals). If the rules are out before they enter that's how it is.

Does this man ever stop with his megalomania? Whilst I agree that more teams will make for a better spectacle (and no doubt more revenue), surely the introduction of three new teams to a season in which a medal system only rewards race wins, is counterproductive?

Is the Poison Dwarf and Mr Whiplash truly hellbent on ignoring the opinions of the public, the drivers, the ex-drivers and the teams who are all in disagreement?

I'm looking forward to having more teams and more competition on the grid, but he just doesn't seem to get it!

ETA: Any speculation on the 3 new teams for the 2010 grid?

Edited by Chuffer on Thursday 26th March 09:54

[Mark2008]

Chuffer said:

ETA: Any speculation on the 3 new teams for the 2010 grid?

Something Branson related probably, or maybe Eddie Jordan also.
Aston Martin would be awesome, although probably rather unlikely.

Edited by Mark2008 on Thursday 26th March 01:05

[Logie]

Would of though of Pro Drive being one?

[DangerousMike]

USGP
prodrive
paul stoddart

[Cara Van Man]

I heard Ted was entering a modified 2CV. It should be good enough to get past the McLaren.

Edited by Cara Van Man on Thursday 26th March 08:41

[RJB_666]

I'd love see Aston Martin on the grid. You would have thought Lamborhini would want to have ago as well. I know they already have a high profile but it would put them in a similar place to Ferrari perhaps. Also i would have thought that ART and I-sport would be tryng to make the step up at some point and with the 30 million budget i would have thought this would be the ideal time.

[dpbird90]

RJB_666 said:

I'd love see Aston Martin on the grid. You would have thought Lamborhini would want to have ago as well. I know they already have a high profile but it would put them in a similar place to Ferrari perhaps. Also i would have thought that ART and I-sport would be tryng to make the step up at some point and with the 30 million budget i would have thought this would be the ideal time.

Lambo won't do it as a constructor because Ferrucio Lamborghini only ever intended them to make road cars, although I do believe that they supplied engines to Minardi in the late 80s/early 90's?
Aston could be on the grid but most likely as Prodrive, DR owns both companies and already expressed interest in putting Prodrive on the grid, so an AMF1 team is unlikely. Shame though, would be cool to see some F1 cars in Gulf Colours

[Muzzer]

Lamborghini won't enter because they're part of the VAG group and VAG are about as interested in F1 as I'm interested in what the Green Party has to say.

Prodrive? He'd like to do it but where would the money come from?

Virgin? Unlikely - the whole Honda thing was a publicity exercise methinks

USF1 is a given. I also think there'll be a team from the Middle East

[stifler]

dpbird90 said:

RJB_666 said:

I'd love see Aston Martin on the grid. You would have thought Lamborhini would want to have ago as well. I know they already have a high profile but it would put them in a similar place to Ferrari perhaps. Also i would have thought that ART and I-sport would be tryng to make the step up at some point and with the 30 million budget i would have thought this would be the ideal time.

Lambo won't do it as a constructor because Ferrucio Lamborghini only ever intended them to make road cars, although I do believe that they supplied engines to Minardi in the late 80s/early 90's?
Aston could be on the grid but most likely as Prodrive, DR owns both companies and already expressed interest in putting Prodrive on the grid, so an AMF1 team is unlikely. Shame though, would be cool to see some F1 cars in Gulf Colours

Plus the fact that Lamborghini is owned by the Volkswagen Audi Group. VAG have declared many times that they do not need to do F1 from a marketing point of view. They have alot of other Motorsport areas covered already.

[FNG]

Would be great to see 26 cars on the grid once more. As long as they weren't candidates for the Andrea Moda Award for making a F1 car that laps slower than a GP2 car...

As for BCE and his medals / race wins nonsense. I simply can't understand why he continues with this, unless to concede it later in exchange for some other concession from the teams.

The fans don't want it, the teams don't - it's not much of a leap to assume the sponsors therefore won't either.

Ultimately it's the sponsors who stick pound notes in Bernie's bottomless pocket, and I'm surprised to see him try to railroad this through.

Incidentally in case you were in any doubt, I think it's a truly terrible idea that qualifies as meddling with something that isn't broken simply because you can. More an ego trip for the odious little chap than something done for the good of the sport (but what's new?).

[paulrockliffe]

Is it not a case of him trying to distract the teams, give them too many things to have to deal with and they're less likely to be united and more likely to let something through the net? Eg, spend all season fighting this ridiculous idea and forget about the budget cap bks?

Just wondering why Dave Richards would enter F1 as Prodrive and not Aston Martin? Surely AM is better known and the F1 project might be beneficial to sales?

[FNG]

paulrockliffe said:

Is it not a case of him trying to distract the teams, give them too many things to have to deal with and they're less likely to be united and more likely to let something through the net? Eg, spend all season fighting this ridiculous idea and forget about the budget cap bks?

Just wondering why Dave Richards would enter F1 as Prodrive and not Aston Martin? Surely AM is better known and the F1 project might be beneficial to sales?

Dave Richards is part of Aston Martin, the face of the company with Middle Eastern backers. But I think he owns Prodrive. So if the money was there for him, I imagine he'd rather own the team himself. Certainly Prodrive and Aston Martin are connected by Dave Richards but not in other ways.

[dpbird90]

stifler said:

dpbird90 said:

RJB_666 said:

I'd love see Aston Martin on the grid. You would have thought Lamborhini would want to have ago as well. I know they already have a high profile but it would put them in a similar place to Ferrari perhaps. Also i would have thought that ART and I-sport would be tryng to make the step up at some point and with the 30 million budget i would have thought this would be the ideal time.

Lambo won't do it as a constructor because Ferrucio Lamborghini only ever intended them to make road cars, although I do believe that they supplied engines to Minardi in the late 80s/early 90's?
Aston could be on the grid but most likely as Prodrive, DR owns both companies and already expressed interest in putting Prodrive on the grid, so an AMF1 team is unlikely. Shame though, would be cool to see some F1 cars in Gulf Colours

Plus the fact that Lamborghini is owned by the Volkswagen Audi Group. VAG have declared many times that they do not need to do F1 from a marketing point of view. They have alot of other Motorsport areas covered already.

Yeah, shame though, I would have thought Audi would want to get in on the act, having done pretty much every other area of top level motorsport I would think F1 would be the next logical step

[stifler]

dpbird90 said:

stifler said:

dpbird90 said:

RJB_666 said:

I'd love see Aston Martin on the grid. You would have thought Lamborhini would want to have ago as well. I know they already have a high profile but it would put them in a similar place to Ferrari perhaps. Also i would have thought that ART and I-sport would be tryng to make the step up at some point and with the 30 million budget i would have thought this would be the ideal time.

Lambo won't do it as a constructor because Ferrucio Lamborghini only ever intended them to make road cars, although I do believe that they supplied engines to Minardi in the late 80s/early 90's?
Aston could be on the grid but most likely as Prodrive, DR owns both companies and already expressed interest in putting Prodrive on the grid, so an AMF1 team is unlikely. Shame though, would be cool to see some F1 cars in Gulf Colours

Plus the fact that Lamborghini is owned by the Volkswagen Audi Group. VAG have declared many times that they do not need to do F1 from a marketing point of view. They have alot of other Motorsport areas covered already.

Yeah, shame though, I would have thought Audi would want to get in on the act, having done pretty much every other area of top level motorsport I would think F1 would be the next logical step

Yeah, they just don't seem to be interested. AJourno put out rumours a couple of years ago that there was to be a Bugatti F1 team. The Big Boss-man at VAG put out a very strong statement saying that F1 was not on their radar, that they weren't interested for any of their roup of companies to be involved in F1. Too much money for not enough gain. Fair play I suppose. It would be interesting to see if that stance would change if a budget cap was introduced.

[Eric Mc]

Aston Martin had a disatrous go at F1 back in the early 1960s.

I think that mainstream car manufacturers are better off keeping away from forming their own teams.

[ajprice]

This picture has been around a while but I'd really like to see an Audi F1 team one day.