McLaren boss Zak Brown has welcomed the idea of additional teams entering Formula 1 and adding to the 10 outfits that currently make up the sport. There are plenty of possible candidates on the periphery of F1, including a potential entry from the Volkswagen Audi Group , as well as a Monaco Increase Management-backed effort, and the Panthera Asia F1 project – the latter having only recently appointed a new CEO . Brown would be happy to see the grid increase to 22 or even 24 cars, though also feels that F1 is healthy as it is. "I'd love to see an 11th and 12th, but I think 10 teams is totally fine," he told RacingNews365.com in an exclusive interview.
How would things work with the Concorde Agreement?
Brown explained that having new entrants would likely add to F1's robust financial health, contributing to a "bigger pie" for teams to eventually eat into. F1's current Concorde Agreement, which encompasses the commercial payouts to teams until the end of 2025, currently requires any new entrants to pay a $200 million dollar fee as part of the arrival criteria. This fee would then be divided equally amongst the existing teams, with the new entrant compensated by means of revenue sharing in their first year. "The 11th and 12th place teams need to pay an entry fee, which gets shared with the teams," Brown emphasised. "Over a long period of time, it would be financially detrimental but, in the short term, I'm [partially] compensated for those two teams coming in and the dilution. "But, coming back to the growth of the sport, I think as long as they're good teams, an 11th and 12th team will help grow the sport. "It should make the pie bigger; I would like to think I'm getting split into a bigger pie with 12 teams than a smaller pie with 10 teams."
Most read
