FIA president Todt not expecting any new F1 teams despite reported interest

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FIA president Jean Todt has played down the likelihood of a new Formula 1 team joining the grid in the short-term.

Recently, there has been speculation of increased interest from potential team owners who have been attracted by the new budgetary regulations for 2021, including a new $175m budget cap.

Most notably a new outfit taking its first steps in Panthera Team Asia, who aim to make their formal entry for the new regulations the season after next with co-founder Benjamin Durand in Singapore last weekend.

However, Todt claimed currently, there were no serious applications on the table worthy of a tender.

"I will be careful, I don’t consider talks or gossip or things like that. I am concrete," the former Ferrari boss began.

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"At the moment I never heard, apart from some website talking about new teams, I never had any strong contact from a relevant solid team wishing to join F1.

"At the moment the good thing is we have 10 strong teams which in a way gives a good value to each team, which is important.

"They invest but still they have a strong asset in their hands. Then again it is a question of opportunity."

Some have been tentative on wanting to push for new entries into F1 based on what happened back in 2010, when three teams joined only to languish at the back of the grid before eventually collapsing.

And Todt noted that any new team would have to be considered as bringing value to F1.

"At the moment we did not see any application of the level of Haas, for example, which was a new team," he said, with the American squad the last to join in 2016.

"There are also possibilities sometimes like what happened with Force India where you had Racing Point deciding to buy the team. So, it all depends on the opportunities.

"At the moment we are happy with having 10 teams. Time will tell if things will change in the future, knowing that the good figure is between 10 and 12 teams."

 

         

 

 

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