what we need is not 3 teams. what we need is testing re-introduced. i'd like to say non-fia official races, but the calender is too busy and we've got enough races.
Adding testing is wayyyy cheaper than adding a 3rd car to the park. that's dozens of million dollars just for 1 car.
Tires, engine, gearbox, chassis, not to mention parts (that get damaged), and the driver, plus the aforementioned
logistical costs etc. An awful HRT costs around 20 million each. I'd say a RedBull costs atleast 4 times as much.
So cheapest solucion: introduce testing again, no way that'll cost 20 million a team each year (for the cheapest team).
You get GP2 drivers happy to become test drivers. You get 'retirement' drivers that can still be usefull to the team.
You save a whole bunch on 'theoretic' development budgets.
In reality; cost-saving through windtunnels and computers is not that rewarding. I'd like to compare it to having an university student that went through all the books and theories, that gets computer realistic simulators, then suddenly making him perform an actual open-heart surgery with complications. it gets complicated and it doesn't work.
And if F1 needs to do anything, it's get back on TV instead of behind the decoder
I'm pirating the races through torrents after they went, so i'm first of all missing out on the 'sensation' i had untill 2 years ago, meanwhile i won't buy or pay for a decoder just to 'please moneywh*re ecclestone', and TV has losses of viewers that normally look F1 or racing. in the long run, you'll lose even more becuase there will be no more zapping on TV and all of a sudden somebody 'discovers' f1.