Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali says “10 teams are more than enough” for the sport to be successful and he personally doesn’t want to expand beyond 20 cars on the grid.
The FIA has closed the process for potential new interest to submit an expression of interest to join F1, and is now working through the applicants to see if it recommends any for approval. Both the governing body and Liberty Media as the commercial rights holder will have a say in any expansion, but Domenicali believes the current 10 teams mean the sport is already at the ideal number.
“This is a very interesting question (what is the right number of teams) because there are different positions and there are also legal implications to what we have to say,” Domenicali told F1’s ‘Beyond the Grid’ podcast. “I think to be honest, if the real value that it is bringing to the sport is important and is real and stable for the future, there is also another consideration that you have to take. If the contest is growing — which is what we can see today — I think 10 teams are more than enough to create the show or the business and the attention that we want to see on the track.
“There is an evaluation going on today that involves the FIA and us to make the right call for the future. This is something that is also connected to the future discussion that will happen with the renewal of the Concorde Agreement, that we need to remember is expiring in 2025, so we have still a long time to go.
“But it’s an evaluation that we need to take considering in this period of time where in the past there were teams that were coming in, getting out with zero value. Now the teams are stable, very profitable and very strong in terms of also technical capability to be competitive on the track.
“Therefore, the right answer is that in the next months it will be a very important point of discussion that we need to tackle. That is, do we need to stay with 10, do we need to have more teams, or we can give the exemption to a future possible team to be really very, very strong that can join F1? This is all a topic that will be part of the discussion for the future.”
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Pushed on whether he himself wants to see more than 20 cars, Domenicali responded: “No. I don’t think so. That’s a personal opinion, I need to say that. Because it’s something that if you have a good show, 20 cars are more than enough.
“If you have two cars or two drivers fighting, the level of attention is mega. So if you have already two teams fighting, that means four cars, it’s just incredible. So can you imagine 20 cars, 10 teams are at the level where there is competition on track? It would be impressive.
“I would say let’s wait and see. My ‘no’ is not against someone who wants to come in — I need to clarify that because otherwise it seems that I want to be protectionist. That is not the case. I want to see the right one and I need to also respect the ones that have invested in Formula 1 in the last period, because we forget too quickly in that respect.
“Now everyone wants to jump in the coach that is very fast. But we need to be prudent, we need to take the right decision, that’s what I’m saying.”
Domenicali says he has helped direct F1 in a better direction from a business point of view as evidenced by the interest in existing teams, suggesting offers to purchase them are closing in on $1 billion — a figure that dwarfs the existing buy-in amount.
“In my role I need to consider that the sport can grow only if the majority of all the teams can grow. That was one of the fundamentals of the budget cap — to give a credible financial stability to the value of the franchise of the team.
“The more you are able to have a competitive field, the more you may have interesting races, the more you can create the interest in the sport and that’s for sure very, very important.
“It is clear that there are situations where the interest in F1 of (some) teams is bigger because they are investing and believe this is the real project on which to develop other things. And therefore it is important that we give sustainable financial stability for each of them to make sure that everyone can do that.
“If you look what has happened in such a short term, talking about the value of a team, there was a time not many years ago — I would say two years ago when the new Concorde Agreement had been signed — when there was talk about, ‘What is the value of a team that has to come in Formula 1?’ There was a number put on the Concorde Agreement that was 200 million (dollars), which seems unreachable, because there were teams in the past that were sold for £1.
“Now the market is offering almost billions to teams and they are refusing that. Can you imagine that?
“So that gives you the perspective of what we are building as an ecosystem. We are building important structure, important dynamics of which the more everyone is growing, the better and the stronger is the business platform which we are all working in.”