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During Thursday's press conference at the McLaren Technology Centre, company's CEO Ron Dennis declared he wanted to avoid his team to run a third Formula 1 car in the near future.
Dennis said his team had the intention of helping F1's struggling teams in order to avoid running a third McLaren-Honda as early as 2015.
The issue of the financially struggling teams (Marussia, Caterham, Sauber and Lotus) was on the agenda of the Formula One Commission meeting in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday after the last race of the season.
“As is widely known now there are certain teams, one of which is McLaren, there are three teams who have a contractual obligation to run three cars in the event the grid world championship entry falls under 16, or 16 or less,” Ron Dennis explained.
“I still feel two teams have great challenges left to get to next year's grid,” he continued.
”It is actually my intention to try and assist them to that position because I think third cars are not good for F1. ”
Although Dennis stated he would run a third car if required to by his contract with FOM (Formula One Management), he does not believe it would be positive for F1.
“I actually absolutely believe that the fastest way to eliminate the back of the grid would be to run three cars,” he explained.
Ron Dennis told why running a third car is by far more complicated than it seems.
“If you run three cars you will absolutely try to optimize the experience. The third car would have a lot more function to it than just fulfilling the contract.
“You've then got to try and use it as a development tool, et cetera et cetera, so you'd only get stronger from the process in all areas except one - which is it would cost us money. No question. So as it's going to cost us money there's a high incentive to avoid that cost by trying to help the other teams successfully survive,” Dennis concluded.
Dennis said his team had the intention of helping F1's struggling teams in order to avoid running a third McLaren-Honda as early as 2015.
The issue of the financially struggling teams (Marussia, Caterham, Sauber and Lotus) was on the agenda of the Formula One Commission meeting in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday after the last race of the season.
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| Ron Dennis talking for the press conference at McLaren. (Photo: McLaren) |
“As is widely known now there are certain teams, one of which is McLaren, there are three teams who have a contractual obligation to run three cars in the event the grid world championship entry falls under 16, or 16 or less,” Ron Dennis explained.
“I still feel two teams have great challenges left to get to next year's grid,” he continued.
”It is actually my intention to try and assist them to that position because I think third cars are not good for F1. ”
Although Dennis stated he would run a third car if required to by his contract with FOM (Formula One Management), he does not believe it would be positive for F1.
“I actually absolutely believe that the fastest way to eliminate the back of the grid would be to run three cars,” he explained.
Ron Dennis told why running a third car is by far more complicated than it seems.
“If you run three cars you will absolutely try to optimize the experience. The third car would have a lot more function to it than just fulfilling the contract.
“You've then got to try and use it as a development tool, et cetera et cetera, so you'd only get stronger from the process in all areas except one - which is it would cost us money. No question. So as it's going to cost us money there's a high incentive to avoid that cost by trying to help the other teams successfully survive,” Dennis concluded.