Jean Todt, the President of the FIA, is confident the future of Formula One remains bright, as the sport and economy recover from the recent financial crisis.
The sport was hit hard by the ‘credit crunch’ as three major car manufacturers pulled out within the space of a year; BMW, Toyota and Honda.
Despite losing such major companies, F1 has weathered the storm, introduced three new outfits and is set for one of the closest and most hardly-fought championships ever.
“It’s very difficult if you are a very powerful manufacturer like BMW, Honda [and] Toyota,” the Press Association quote Todt as saying.
“Incidentally, none of them were very successful, so when you spend a huge amount of money without success, it’s probably easier when you have to decide where and how to invest.
“Saying that three new teams have arrived, they are doing well for the first year, even if none of them have scored points, but they are respectable teams.
“They have demonstrated to be very brave to get into the business, but lots of teams and drivers have started by being uncompetitive before going to an upper level,” he added.
The current grid stands at 12 teams, with the capacity to support 13. However, the Frenchman says he is happy with the current state of the sport.
“We now have 12 teams participating in Formula One, which I feel is a good number.
“Hopefully we are at the end of the big economic crisis, and I think 12 teams in Formula One is quite an encouraging result.”
