Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn has suggested there is “an agenda” in Formula One to drive the small teams out of the sport and create an elitist system.head of Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix the paddock at Interlagos was awash with rumour and speculation regarding F1’s future in light of the breakdown in talks on Saturday regarding financial stability.
It was being suggested Red Bull and Ferrari were ready to run three cars in 2015 to help increase the number of runners on the grid.
Current agreements between the sport’s commercial rulers, private equity firm CVC Capital Partners – spearheaded by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone – and the teams dictate if the number of cars on the grid drop below 20 then the major marques are obliged to field a third car.
With Marussia going out of business on Friday and Caterham close to following suit despite efforts by the team’s administrator to bring in a new owner, such a scenario is close to being realised.
After declaring the weekend “a complete and utter waste of time” as the meetings predictably failed to yield a solution, Ecclestone has stated that “at the moment there has been no agreement for a third car”.
Even Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has insisted running a third car is not on his team’s radar, with a cost of £25-30million per year too prohibitive.
Horner said: “If there was a third car requested to be run we could not do it within our existing budget, of course we could not.
“The third car is only a scenario if the numbers drop, so at the moment we don’t see it.
“It is not something we are planning or pushing for. If we are requested to do it then obviously we will have to look at it at that point.”
Beyond that, however, there is real concern among Sauber, Lotus and Force India that with no consensus on financial assistance or cost cuts to aid their cause, they are being marginalised.
A highly-critical Kaltenborn said: “Looking at the proposals which have been made we have to believe there is some agenda here.
“The agenda seems to be that people are looking at four or five names to remain.
“When ideas are offered to us of a year-old chassis or engines which maybe are a different spec, a different series, whatever, there must be an agenda.
“Since nobody is reacting to it in front we don’t know whose agenda it is, but the fact is it cannot go on like this. It’s not the way we want to work or can work.
“The more these ideas come up, the more we three get the feeling that maybe some people don’t want us to be around and maybe the sport is supposed to be changed in a very different way.”
Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley echoed Kaltenborn’s remarks as he said: “One way or another, it is probably in some ways trying not to keep the status quo.
“Where we have the full constructors’ series, it is to break us up.”
Horner, however, has denied the claims because asked as to whether there was an agenda to drive teams out, he replied: “No, not at all.
“Red Bull’s position is we want to see a full grid of two-car teams.
“We have an obligation, as do a couple of other teams, that if the numbers drop below a certain number then we will be required by the promoter to field a third car.
“The numbers haven’t dropped significantly low enough and we haven’t been requested by the promoter to run a third car.
“So, that is the situation. Our preference is we have at least 10 healthy competing two-car teams.”