F1 News: Mercedes Chief Demands New Teams To "Qualify" Before Grid Entry
Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff has called for a new approach to be brought in for the new teams which are hoping to join the grid.
There has been a lot of discussion surrounding the addition of another team to the F1 grid in either 2025 or 2026. The expressions of interest process for new teams is ongoing. The application deadline has been and gone and they are now in the process of being reviewed by the FIA.
Some of the current team chiefs raised concerns over the prospect of a new team, urging the FIA and Formula One Management to ensure that a new team would bring something to the sport instead of just diluting the prize funds.
During an interview with Sky Sports, Wolff has called for the FIA to make the new teams "qualify" before they enter. He explained:
"There is no mature sports league in the world, whether it's a national football championship, or the Champions League, the NBA, the NFL, the NHL, where such situation is possible, where you say, 'I'm setting up a team and I'm joining, thank you very much for making me part of the prize fund.
"You have to give to qualify, you have to go through the ranks, you have to showcase the commitment to the championship that we've done over the many years.
"If everybody in the NFL agrees - the teams that own the franchise there, so it's different to us - agrees to have another entry, to let another team in because of the right reasons, the right ownership, etc, then that team is being admitted into the championship.
"And the same with most of the professional leagues in the US. We are a franchise, and this is how I would look at it."
Andretti Cadillac is the most-talked about hopeful team after Andretti Autosport joined forces with General Motors earlier this year. The American team has already began building the team and developing the car to be ready to hit the track for 2025 should they be successful.
Wolff continued:
"If [an entry bid] is creative, then we must look at it. So far, what we've seen hasn't convinced the teams - but we haven't seen the applications and submissions that were made to the FIA and to Stefano, and they will judge whether that is positive for Formula 1 or not.
"But in any case, from a team's owner side, there are no leagues which just increased the entries, because that just dilutes the whole league. I think if it's accretive then obviously not."