Regulation: F1 teams reject customer chassis, not the third car

Formula 1 teams have reportedly once again rejected the idea of customer cars, according to Autosport.

Since the beginning of the season, the question of budget caps or cost control in the premier discipline has been sidelined, driven primarily by the richest teams. In Italy, the discussion then focused on alternative solutions that could allow smaller teams to face fewer financial difficulties.

One of the solutions considered to help them was to remove the chassis from the list of components that a team had to manufacture themselves, effectively allowing them to purchase this expensive element from a larger manufacturer. However, our British colleagues explain that one of the major strengths of F1 is being a championship for the teams as well as for the drivers, so the proposal was rejected.

The situation of small teams in F1 today is concerning. All the measures considered since the end of the 2013 season to try to alleviate their difficulties have been postponed, leaving them now in a financial turmoil that could, in the long or short term, lead to their disappearance, especially since the allocation of resources still favors the teams that dominate the discipline.

This state of affairs should be paralleled with the information revealed by Autosport, which explains that the major structures of the premier category remain open to the idea of a third car, in the event of backmarker teams disappearing.

Marco Mattiacci, the director of Scuderia Ferrari, categorically rejects customer chassis while leaving the option of a third car open: « I think that if we keep calling this a constructors’ championship, the constructors must build a chassis. Otherwise, you risk diluting the DNA of Formula 1. […] Regarding the third car, it’s an option but I am very focused on making sure my two cars work. So I don’t want to think about a third. »