NOVEMBER 11, 2011

More discussion on third cars

There has been more discussion in F1 on the possibility of teams running third cars after Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo raised the subject again recently.

It was a direction that former FIA president Max Mosley was in favour of before the governing body U-turned on it in 2008 after David Richards had planned a Prodrive entry on the basis of running a private McLaren.

Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Ross Brawn said: "I don't think it's out of the question but we mustn't make it a harder environment for the smaller constructors. If that is the case, what have we achieved? A smaller group. I'd far rather see a healthy group of constructors."

McLaren's Martin Whitmarsh added: "We'd all be excited to see a Valentino Rossi or a Sebastien Loeb in an F1 car but we have to act responsibly. It's challenging for teams to attract the budgets to go racing and if the top four teams ran third cars I feel it would be damaging to the sport."

Marussia team principal John Booth, whose team has recently invested in new premises to better fulfill its constructor function, said: "We have a healthy grid and I think it's important that every entrant is a constructor."