Could Formula 1 soon welcome an 11th entry to the grid? FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem revealed yesterday the sport’s governing body is looking into beginning the process of admitting a new team – something which last happened in 2016.
But making a start in F1 is notoriously difficult. Just 10 entirely new teams have joined the sport since 1994, and few of those are still on the grid.
However the success of one of those which survived serves to underline the value of allowing newcomers in.
Haas
Year entered: 2016
Are they still in F1?: Yes
What happened to them?
Haas courted controversy before they’d even turned a wheel. The new entry formed by Gene Haas, owner of the Stewart-Haas NASCAR team, and run by ex-Red Bull engineer Guenther Steiner, exploited new rules which allowed teams to source some parts from rivals, in their case Ferrari.
Complaints the team had drawn too closely on the race-winning Ferrari for inspiration were brushed aside as Romain Grosjean took them to a shock points score on their debut, and followed it up at the next race in Bahrain. Last year they took their first pole position, for the sprint race at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Six years on, Haas are still with us, which is no mean achievement given the difficulties many of their predecessors faced, as we shall see.
HRT
Year entered: 2010
Are they still in F1?: No
What happened to them?
In 2010 F1 admitted a trio of new teams. They were originally lured to the series under the prospect of competing under a budget cap which promised to level the playing field. Although those rules never materialised (different financial regulations eventually arrived in 2021), the new entries did, and inevitably they found themselves at a huge disadvantage as a result.
HRT was the first to hit the wall after just three years. Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok looked on in the Bahrain pits while the team scrambled to complete their Dallara-designed F110 chassis for their first appearance in 2010. A year of toil at the back followed, and the team chopped and changed drivers as it searched for a budget.
Despite that inauspicious start the team contrived to finish ahead of one of its fellow newcomers in the championship that year and the following season. They sank to last in 2012, and the team was put up for sale before the final race, where drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan…
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