Thirty F1 cars opportunity for the sport: 'Let local heroes try'

Every year there are only around twenty drivers who are allowed to drive F1 cars. A lot of talent is left out as a result. Peter Windsor thinks it is a good proposal to have thirty participants in a race.

F1 lives in the past

In a YouTube video interview, the F1 journalist answers several questions. He is also asked to respond to the statement that thirty drivers are needed on the grid to cope with the influx of talent. In doing so, the questioner is concerned with both attracting sim drivers, newcomers and women and retaining older drivers such as Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. 

Windsor is positive about the idea and wonders why not. The Brit explains that there are only twenty drivers on the grid because each team is only allowed two drivers. That rule, according to the analyst, still stems from how people thought within F1 in the 1980s. At that time the organizers and leaders wanted to keep the sport very exclusive on purpose. 

Current F1 teams do not want to share money

"We still live in that era, I think," Windsor says. "For no reason at all. Why shouldn't we allow it for any team that wants it to have a third local driver drive during the races." Windsor sees an especially good advertisement for the sport in this idea. One example scenario he outlines is that Mercedes would run a third car in Miami with Logan Sargeant. 

The Briton thinks it should be fine with thirty cars on the current tracks; only tracks like Monaco won't lend themselves as well to this situation. The reason it is not happening yet, according to Windsor, is the mentality of the current teams. "They can say they want it, but they don't actually want it. They don't feel like new teams, making the slices of the pie thinner."