Mario Theissen, Motorsport Director at BMW, has voiced his concerns over teams sharing car chassis. STR are planning to use the same chassis as Red Bull Racing, and Super Aguri will be using a Honda Chassis next year.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to sell chassis to a second team,” Theissen explained. “The original idea was to help smaller teams to become more competitive in Formula 1. That is a good approach and it would certainly help them if they can buy a chassis instead of having to employ 300 people to design and build it.
“Today we have independent teams who want to be competitive, who see themselves as one of the 12 teams on the grid, who fight for their own success. With the sale of each chassis, I think we will very soon have six-plus-six teams – or six teams with four cars each. Having just four or five big players controlling the grid in our view would not be F1 any more.”
