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Drivers buck trend on third cars

Romain Grosjean is strongly in favour of third cars © Getty Images

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Racing drivers are made of different stuff to the rest of us. They're built differently, and then trained to be competitive and full of self-confidence. No-one stepping into a cockpit does so thinking they're going to spend their career marking time at the back, whatever their realistic odds of success.

But the optimism on offer on Thursday morning in Austin, when the drivers were asked for their opinions on third cars, was on another level entirely.

While no driver is going to rubbish the idea in public for fear of having their comments come back to bite them should the third-car concept come into play during the course of their career, for the bulk of drivers asked it was clear that each saw themselves as the obvious candidate for a third-car drive with a front-running team. Romain Grosjean - whose 2013 drives for Lotus do make the Frenchman a contender for a seat with a front-running team - saw third cars as a chance for a driver to boost his reputation.

"If you put it on a good team and you're racing in the same cars as what we call the superstars, then it gives you an opportunity to show how strong you and then get called one of those superstars," he said. "I think whoever is doing a good job as a driver, bringing them to the good team, like Daniel, showing that he's capable of winning races. A third car would certainly help some of us to have a good reputation."

Esteban Gutierrez - whose career prospects would be diminished by the introduction of third cars, given that it would effectively become impossible for mid-field teams to score points - was also in favour of the concept. Third cars "could bring more opportunities for the drivers and also I think it would be good for the level of competition overall, so, yeah, all in all, it's a positive," the Sauber driver, who has thus far scored six points in 36 race starts, said.

Esteban Gutierrez's chances of points at Sauber would be slimmer in 2014 with three cars © Sutton Images

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Sergio Perez, whose career has encompassed time in the mid-field plus a mis-timed move to what should have been a front-running team, was also in favour of the idea, citing the opportunities it would bring. "I think it will definitely help the opportunities of the drivers," he said. "Obviously there will be a bit more of a chance. Formula One is really limited. The spaces where you can go and where you can actually win during a year, so it can create a bit more opportunity to the drivers, as a driver point of view."

The reality is that while those teams likely to be asked to supply a third car are in ruder financial health than most, there are still only two or three teams on the grid whose finances are healthy enough that they would not need to sell their third seat to recoup the additional costs of running a third car and all the personnel needed to do the job. Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari could use third cars as talent incubators, but none of those teams are likely to fill a third seat with a driver already on the grid unless they have a prior relationship with that driver. Instead, those seats will go to members of their junior driver programmes.

Even the once-mighty McLaren does not have the sort of bank balance that would enable them to write off the cost of a third car and use it to give a chance to the likes of Grosjean, while the back-on-form Williams aren't as strong on the balance sheets as they are on track.

Rather than using third cars to give current mid-fielders the chance to shine, should the concept come to pass many of those currently in favour of the idea would find their potential seats taken by up-and-coming young talent whose very existence would make it all but impossible for the also-rans to collect the sort of mid-field points hauls that turn them into attractive prospects for the front-runners.

There was one aspect to the possibility of third cars that all the drivers did get right, however: if teams are forced to take on third cars, they will need to increase their staffing levels, potentially giving those Marussia and Caterham employees currently worried about mortgage payments a much-needed lifeline.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

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