Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn believes F1 bosses and those in charge of the ‘big teams’ such as Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren, want rid of smaller outfits.
Kaltenborn expressed her view just weeks after Caterham and Marussia folded, reducing the grid to just 18 cars, whilst financial concerns continue to spread amongst three of the smallest teams on the grid in the form of Force India, Lotus and Sauber.
With little in the way of help or support from the sports owners or the cash-rich teams which dominate, Kaltenborn has her own view as to what is happening in the sport.
“Looking at the proposals which have been made you have to believe there is some agenda, don’t you?” she said.
“The agenda seems to be that people are looking at four or five names to stay in here, and when ideas are offered to us of a year-old chassis or engines which are maybe a different spec or series, there must be an agenda,” added Kaltenborn after it was revealed that Bernie Ecclestone suggested F1 become a two-tier sport with five big names competing at the front, whilst a few smaller teams run old cars or ‘super-GP2’ cars on a small budget to simply make up the numbers.
“There’s no-one reacting to it in front, we don’t know whose agenda it is,” continued Kaltenborn. “That’s why it’s important we said what we had to on this point because these things are changing every day, but the fact is it cannot remain like this.
“It’s no way we want to work and can work and the more these ideas are coming up the more we get the feeling that maybe some people don’t want us to be around – and maybe the sport is supposed to be changed in a very different way.”
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