Bernie Ecclestone claims that contracts signed by the larger teams in Formula 1 could result in them supplying cars to rival outfits in order to keep the grid from shrinking further.
Whilst the idea of third cars is widely known, Ecclestone has revealed that the third cars would be run by rivals, rather than the team which has designed it.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, the 83-year-old gave an example of how it might work.
“They would supply a third car to someone else so if, for example, Sauber disappeared, a team could do a deal with Sauber. Ferrari could say, ‘we will give you a car, all that goes with it, and we want you to put this sponsor on it. You have your own sponsors but we want you to include this one as well and we want you to take this driver’.
“The team wouldn’t have to go under then would they? If Red Bull decided they would give a car to Caterham for example that could solve their problem.”
It’s believed 16 cars must race at any event before contracts are broken with race organisers, therefore this weekend’s United States Grand Prix should go ahead with 18 cars present.
However Ecclestone’s contracts with the teams states that should the grid fall below 20 cars – giving him a slight buffer – then third cars would be activated, but only once a team has missed more than two races. Therefore third cars would likely not happen until 2015 if both Caterham and Marussia fail to survive as seems likely with both having now appointed administrators.
“We don’t have to introduce a third car at this stage because they can miss a couple of races. They lose any money they would have got for those races but they don’t lose their position in the championship. I have no idea if Marussia are going to make it in the long run. It’s better if they didn’t have to go into administration,” he added.
