Customer Cars or Franchise Teams, what do you think?

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ESPImperium
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Joined: 06 Apr 2008, 00:08
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
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Re: Customer Cars or Franchise Teams, what do you think?

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Customer/Franchise cars have beaten the works cars in the past, even as far back as 2008 when they were in use last. Red Bull were outscored by Toro Rosso by 10 points, however the Ferrari 056 and a Sebastian Vettel were primarily the advantage that season.

If Customer Cars are on their way, id put them in a separate 'Teams Championship' and exclude them from the constructors title, they are almost excluded from the FOM prize money, only getting a share of €75m a season from them. They are also cost capped as well to a budget of €100m a season. The teams that go this way, however are given more freedoms in terms of track testing in season, they will be allowed to test for 6 days more than the established 'Constructors', however they must allocate 2 days of that over to the tyre supplier and their allocated test driver/drivers. This will help both the teams/tyre supplier. The other 4 days must be allocated to young drivers. Chassis shall be cost capped to €10m for the first 3 per season, Power Units at €15m and gearboxes to €5m. These teams will also have to use a spec telemetry system and Electronics system at €5m a year. So you could in theory have a Red Bull chassis with a Mercedes Power Unit and a Ferrari Gearbox and a McLaren electronics system.

The rules should be of such to encourage teams into the sport, but after a period of time, they shall be expected to make the leap from 'Team' to 'Constructor'.

However, this leaves a element that needs talked about, upgrades, how would these be policed and introduced is another topic.

Im against customer cars, but i can see them coming. I can see Haas being used as a Ferrari B team, ART being used as a McLaren B team, Toro Rosso will convert back to a Red Bull B team, leaving Mercedes to look to do the same with a new entry somewhere. That leaves 9 Constructors (Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, Williams, McLaren, Sauber, Force India, Lotus & Manor) and 4 teams (Toro Rosso, Haas, ART, Mercedes-B).

However, another topic that needs to be looked at is the points system, the Drivers points would remain, but how would the constructors/teams titles be dished out? If you have a P9 for a team, does that P9 for the team go to the constructors P10? and the P10 Constructors point go the the P11? Points systems could get messy on the Constructors side quite quickly.

Lots of topics, lots of ideas from the way I'm looking at it.

If they do come in, the 'teams' need to come in with a year old power unit in a present/current chassis. A 'team' would need to be handicapped somewhere for taking a shortcut into F1 in my opinion, and arguably, the constructors need to be able to out-develop the 'teams' as the season goes along. The 'teams' need to b be able to access developments, but when they are allowed needs to be permitted to a specific window as well. These B teams need to be kept to strengthen and tighten the mid pack in the start of the year, but they need to drift to the end of the pack by the end of the year as the constructors will out develop them in a aero sense.

Thats my stand point.

Wayne DR
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Joined: 24 Feb 2014, 01:07

Re: Customer Cars or Franchise Teams, what do you think?

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ESPImperium wrote:I can see Haas being used as a Ferrari B team, ART being used as a McLaren B team, Toro Rosso will convert back to a Red Bull B team, leaving Mercedes to look to do the same with a new entry somewhere. That leaves 9 Constructors (Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, Williams, McLaren, Sauber, Force India, Lotus & Manor) and 4 teams (Toro Rosso, Haas, ART, Mercedes-B).
Totally agree. What excites me is the 8 new seats that come with the 4 new teams!

Rossi has been linked to HAAS. Vandoorne is a strong possibility for a McLaren B. Nick Todt has been linked to ART (is this a conflict?)

Personally, as an Aussie, I hope Kiwi, Mitch Evans gets a look in...

Who else do we want to see?

I can see Giedo van der Garde's financiers stumping up some cash for him to get a drive... Still unsure whether he is up to the task...

ESPImperium
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Joined: 06 Apr 2008, 00:08
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Contact:

Re: Customer Cars or Franchise Teams, what do you think?

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If i was to make the rule for customer cars, id have them have one driver with at least two years experience for the first year, then after that every driver in the 'teams' seats have no more than a years experience in order to keep new blood coming into the sport, thus negating the need for pay drivers, and drivers can only stay at the 'teams' for no longer than 2 years. That means each 'team' must have one driver that isn't a rookie. Constructors can change to two rookies every year if they wish, give them a competitive and commercial advantage, not by much.

These 'teams' need to be able to be ran out of a basic factory, with a budget of €100m a year, with a team personnel of no more than 150, and with two young drivers, one of them a rookie.

However, the rookie rules need to be looked at as well, those rookies need to have done at least 30 GP2 or WSR3.5 or 40 GP3 races and participated in a Le Mans 24 hours race at LMP2 level. Thats the only way that a driver can get into F1. Thus stopping the VES jump immediately. Drivers need to have the skills to be able to sit in a F1 car.