“I’m not sure it will be ’22, but I think there’s a chance”- Ex-Minardi boss on new participants in F1

“I’m not sure it will be ’22, but I think there’s a chance”- Ex- Minardi boss on new participants in Formula 1 with favourable investment opportunities.

With the new $145m budget caps being imposed in and by 2023, they further going down to $35m, ex-Minardi boss Paul Stoddart feels that privately backed teams like Minardi can once again enter F1.

“It’s certainly interesting at the moment because the budgets are being pulled back,” the European Aviation boss told RaceFans last year. “So where the budgets, to a degree, got out of control, I do feel that it is getting a bit more sensible.

“[There’s a chance that] there will be private teams coming in the near future,” the Australian suggested. “I’m not sure it will be ’22, but I think there’s a chance that F1 might become a bit more sensible and a lot depends on what they do with the engine regs in ’25 or ’26.”

The most recently entered team in the paddock was Haas in 2016, but so far it also struggled with the financial constraints against the big guns on the grid, and before Uralkali investment came in they were on the verge of liquidation.

Should buy an existing team

The current Concorde agreement states that any new entity willing to register in the competition shall submit an initial fee of $200m, which will then be distributed to the other teams to ensure revenue payments aren’t diluted by having more teams.

Hence, Stoddart opines that any investor willing to get into F1 should aim to acquire an existing entity, as more than one team has posed a threat to quit in recent times.

“I think there will be teams come up from time to time that can be bought for less than that $200m entry fee,” he said, citing Haas and Alfa Romeo as possibly next on the for sale list.

“If I was somebody looking to get back in, I’d be looking at buying a team, not starting a new one, even though we have all the facilities to do it,” he added.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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