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Talking at the Autosport Show in the UK, Williams Formula 1 team technical director Pat Symonds declared he was worried to see so many teams facing serious financial difficulties.
Two teams, Caterham and Marussia, entered administration in 2014 and at least three others are facing huge debts.
Symonds thinks there is something fundamentally wrong in the system.
"It's not a sustainable business model, if you want to call it a mess it's a mess," Symonds declared Thursday at the show.
"There is a reluctance to sit down and sort it out, the trouble is so much is done without the transparency I believe we should have and those working hard to protect their position are doing so. It's their job of course, you won't get Ferrari saying 'guys, we've got far too much money, we'll give you some'. It's unrealistic,” the former Benetton and Renault technical director said.
"What we really need to do is to start again, [but] that won't change until the current commercial deal expires. Don't get me wrong, it should be a meritocracy, it's just a bit too biased towards the top at the moment. In F1, they say its tough at the top, but it's even tougher at the bottom.
"We do have a business to run and unfortunately as we've seen its one barely sustainable and it's tragic two [teams] have gone and we have another three struggling,” the British engineer explained.
Two teams, Caterham and Marussia, entered administration in 2014 and at least three others are facing huge debts.
Symonds thinks there is something fundamentally wrong in the system.
"It's not a sustainable business model, if you want to call it a mess it's a mess," Symonds declared Thursday at the show.
"There is a reluctance to sit down and sort it out, the trouble is so much is done without the transparency I believe we should have and those working hard to protect their position are doing so. It's their job of course, you won't get Ferrari saying 'guys, we've got far too much money, we'll give you some'. It's unrealistic,” the former Benetton and Renault technical director said.
"What we really need to do is to start again, [but] that won't change until the current commercial deal expires. Don't get me wrong, it should be a meritocracy, it's just a bit too biased towards the top at the moment. In F1, they say its tough at the top, but it's even tougher at the bottom.
"We do have a business to run and unfortunately as we've seen its one barely sustainable and it's tragic two [teams] have gone and we have another three struggling,” the British engineer explained.