[Jody Barton]

simply not enough teams on the grid.

Nope, 10 teams in the modern era is as small as the grid has ever been, and it’s not great. TBH for a few years (after the Hamilton / Vettel / Kubica crop) there’s actually been a real dearth in quality young drivers coming through, so the lack of seats wasn’t really an issue for the sport. Now though? Off of the top of my head I can list in the junior Formula at least 5 potential WDCs all with Lewis / Vettel / Max like records... and luckily for Brits 3 of them are British. Throw in Wehrlein, Giovinazzi and even Kvyat (he was seriously rapid in junior Formula) and you could potentially have 10 drivers knocking on the F1 door soon who deserve a drive. There is some dead wood in F1 at the moment, but not much. Think Grosjean, Ericsson, Magnussen and potentially Stroll could be considered dead wood. Possibly the two Toro Rosso drivers too, but after knocking him, Gasly quietly impressed me. Kimi and Alonso might be nearing retirement, but is anyone else? Hamilton and Vettel each have 5 more years in them easy, Hülkenberg might find himself pressured too, given he’s now north of 30.

I think there are enough teams, but other interests prevent teams from getting the best drivers. Interests like a need of funds, dependency towards sponsers, etc. But then again, that is how the world works and we are not willing to pay thousands of [fill in the currency of choice] for tickets, pay per view, etc.

There is in no way enough teams in the sport. Period. It is historically low in the modern era. We used to have grids of up to 30 cars. Not saying that’s desirable, as the tracks got congested, BUT, a grid of 24 or 26 cars is. The “there’s not enough money” argument doesn’t quite hold either. F1 commercially generates more income than at any other time. That income is just distributed badly. I accept teams have found it harder to get sponsors / higher sponsorship fees since tobacco advertising was banned, but, the money is there. Plus for the big manufacturers it remains great (invaluable according to Renault and ?Mercedes) PR. Porsche could do it, as could Toyota. No problem. But they’d need an initial helping hand / incentive to do so.