Mercedes F1 Boss Toto Wolff Grasping At Straws To Prevent 11th Team Joining

Formula 1 is currently considering new teams to join the world championship grid, but many team principals aren’t happy about this, including Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. The deadline for formal applications with the FIA closed last May, and the sport’s governing body is aiming to make its final decisions this month. The approved teams will then negotiate with Formula One Management, the championship’s commercial rights holder, to secure their spots.

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The concerns of the current teams revolve around the dilution of F1’s prize pool by an additional team to share revenue with. The team bosses wanted to be included in the application process and have a say if a team was allowed to join. However, Wolff has added an additional concern to the mix, safety. According to Motorsport.com, he said:

“Our position was very clear – buy a team. There’s a lot of consequences when you look at qualifying sessions. I mean already now we are looking like on a go-kart track, we are tripping over each other. There is a safety concern. We haven’t got the logistics where to put an 11th team.”

The Austrian’s concerns are completely overblown. Formula 1’s regulations allow for a maximum of 13 teams. Garage facilities at circuits allowed to host F1 are built with those regulations in mind. The track might be too crowded during the first portion of qualifying, but the format could easily be changed to alleviate congestion.

F1 CEO and President Stefano Domenicali (left) and Toto Wolff (right)Photo: Justin Tallis / AFP (Getty Images)

Wolff would then continue to try to compare the current situation in F1 to other team sports, stating:

“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 a situation is possible, where you can say ‘I’m just setting up the team and I’m joining, thank you very much for making me part of the prize fund. You have 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.”

That is not how the process works in the North American leagues. It is a franchise system where new owners pay an expansion fee to the league and participate in a draft to build a roster using players from existing teams. Wolff conceded that the NHL allowed the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken to join but stated that all of hockey’s stakeholders wanted it to happen.

Formula One Management and the teams already established a similar anti-dilution fee for new entries, but the teams seemingly want more power to keep the paddock gate shut. F1 has also kept out the juggernauts of its feeder series, like Prema Powerteam and ART Grand Prix. Both teams have over 50 championship titles combined but have never been able to move up to F1. Hitech Grand Prix, another mult-category junior team, has sent in an application alongside Andretti-Cadillac’s heavily-criticized effort.