Formula One Teams

For a long time there has been debate about the optimum number of teams in the Formula One championship. Each year there is speculation surrounding new teams and teams who are looking to exit the sport. Recently Bernie Ecclestone has been continuing his argument saying that ten teams is the best number of the sport.

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See how much you can save in a few minutes. Ecclestone who is the Formula One chief executive was critical of the new entrants in the 2010 championship. As most struggled to keep pace with the longer standing teams he was critical of their entrance. However since the end of the season he has warmed to Lotus and stated they were worthy of their place in the season.

We think that the entrance of new teams has to be good for the sport, whilst it might take them a few years to get to a position where they finish higher up the table. When you look at other sports the entrance of new team is celebrated. Look at the English Premiere League there has been some notable new teams enter the league in recent years. Take 2010/11 Blackpool hit the top division for the first time since the Premiere League started. Whilst they have started to slip in recent weeks there entrance to the league was celebrated across the country.

The entrance of new blood keeps a sport fresh, it adds an element of the unknown. Especially looking at how good Jensen Button did in his brand new team. If Formula One championed the "new team" element they could pull more interest from non F1 fans.

Having new teams who enter the fold and stir up competition would make the season much more interesting. To be completely honest I love formula one but I don't want to see Ferrari and McLaren  chasing the title every year and the rest of the pack finish in line. Some of the best seasons I have watched have included the ones where severe weather has thrown up some interesting results.

Seeing Ecclestones comments such as "one or two (of the teams) shouldn't be there perhaps.. its a bit rich for their blood" really disappoints me. Whilst he did also say that some of them will get on their feet and sponsors will be attracted to them again it seems that the attraction of money to the sport seems more important than the actual competition.

Whilst the money is important some of the companies behind the teams have very deep pockets. They enter the fold to showcase their engineering whilst gaining as much sponsorship as possible would be a goal, it doesn't seem like this is their aim.

Ecclestone also commented that twelve teams is too much, and ten is enough. Again it seems as though this decision is set around the financial aspect of the sport. Ten would leave enough sponsors to hit each team with a decent amount of sponsorship, obviously the more teams the sponsorship is diluted.

All of the new entrants from 2010 have vowed to up their game in 2011, the Lotus technical boss said they need to compete. He confirmed you shouldn't be there and not compete. With a drive like this it will be interesting to see where Lotus finish in 2011.