If you are like me, you like motorsport and you enjoy formula one. The science behind it all and the raw speed of F1 cars as well as the competitive nature of the F1 drivers is exciting. But do you know how many teams are in formula one?
There are a lot things to learn and understand in formula one racing. Formula one teams is one of them.
If you are new to the sport, it is important for you to know the number of teams in F1 today.
You will also learn and understand the history, and the future of teams in formula one racing.
To help you further understand how many teams are in F1, I have put together this resource for you. I would encourage you to read to the end.
How Many Teams Are in Formula One Today?
There are ten (10) teams in formula one today. These teams are;
- Scuderia Ferrari
- Red Bull Racing
- Mercedes Petronas AMG F1
- Mclaren F1 Team
- Alpine F1 Team
- Scuderia AlphaTauri
- William Racing
- Haas F1 Team
- Alfa Romeo F1 Team
- Aston Martin F1 Team
One of the most interesting facts is that 7 out of these teams are based in the United Kingdom.
Each team has two racing cars and two f1 drivers. This means there are twenty cars and twenty drivers.
All the 10 teams have confirmed who will be driving for them this year.
In this list of F1 teams, only one team has been in the sport since it was launched in the 1950s.
Do you know that team?
Let me tell you; Ferrari is the only F1 team that has been in the sport since it’s inception or it started.
Each driver can choose their own racing number to use during their career. The reigning world champion, Lewis Hamilton, has the option of adopting the number one or continuing to use their career number (No.44).
How Many F1 Teams Are There in 2022?
There are 10 teams competing for the formula one championship in 2022.
A list of teams and drivers which have been confirmed or are expected to take part in the 2022 F1 season which has 23 Grands Prix. All 10 teams have confirmed who will be driving for them this year.
No new Formula 1 teams have been announced for the 2022 season. Each driver can choose their own racing number to use during their career.
Will There Be Any New F1 Teams?
In the 2022 season, there will be now new formula team joining the grid.
There are continuing talks for other teams to join F1, but no decisions have been made yet.
Some of the brands being mentioned in relation to joining formula one include Porsche and Audi. The two brand belong to Volkswagen Group.
It is being reported today that the group is looking into buying Mclaren or Red Bull.
While Porsche are more guarded with their plans, multiple sources advise that discussions were held with Red Bull, which recently established a powertrain division.
As a start, Red Bull wants to continue building and servicing the Honda F1 power units they acquired the intellectual property to when the company exited at end-2021.
One of the options is is to form a joint venture, with Red Bull managing and funding the project, and Porsche supplying powertrains.
Such an arrangement would grant the energy drinks company a prestigious automotive partner. In return, Porsche would have to access to the skills of Adrian Newey, the most successful F1 design ‘brain’ in the history of F1, and the stellar engineering team in Milton Keynes.
Max Verstappen drives for Red Bull and won the drivers’ championship in 2021.
How Many Teams are in F1 – How it started.
Beginning in the 1970s, Bernie Ecclestone rearranged the management of Formula One’s commercial rights He is widely credited with transforming the sport into the multibillion-dollar business it now is.
When Ecclestone bought the Brabham team during 1971, he gained a seat on the Formula One Constructors’ Association and during 1978 he became its president.
Previously, the circuit owners controlled the income of the teams and negotiated with each individually; however, Ecclestone persuaded the teams to “hunt as a pack” through FOCA.
He offered Formula One to circuit owners as a package, which they could take or leave. In return for the package, almost all that was required was to surrender trackside advertising.
Since 1981, Formula One teams have been required to build the chassis in which they compete, and consequently the terms “team” and “constructor” became more or less interchangeable.
This requirement distinguishes the sport from series such as the IndyCar Series which allows teams to purchase chassis, and “spec series” such as GP2, which require all cars be kept to an identical specification.
It also effectively prohibits privateers, which were common even in Formula One well into the 1970s.
How Many Teams are in Formula One – The 1950s
The sport’s debut season, 1950, saw eighteen teams compete, but due to high costs, many dropped out quickly. In fact, such was the scarcity of competitive cars for much of the first decade of Formula One that Formula Two cars were admitted to fill the grids.
Ferrari is the oldest Formula One team, the only still-active team which competed in 1950.
Early manufacturer involvement came in the form of a “factory team” or “works team” that is, one owned and staffed by a major car company, such as those of Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, or Renault.
After having virtually disappeared by the early 1980s, factory teams made a comeback in the 1990s and 2000s and formed up to half the grid with Ferrari, Jaguar, BMW, Renault, Toyota, and Honda either setting up their own teams or buying out existing ones.
Mercedes-Benz owned 40% of the McLaren team and manufactured the team’s engines. Factory teams make up the top competitive teams.
In 2008 wholly-owned factory teams took four of the top five positions in the Constructors’ Championship, and McLaren the other.
Wholly-Owned Factory F1 Teams
Ferrari holds the record for having won the most Constructors’ Championships (sixteen). However, by the end of the 2000s factory teams were once again on the decline with only Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Renault lodging entries to the 2010 championship.
Companies such as Climax, Repco, Cosworth, Hart, Judd and Supertec, which had no direct team affiliation, often sold engines to teams that could not afford to manufacture them.
In the early years, independently owned Formula One teams sometimes also built their engines, though this became less common with the increased involvement of major car manufacturers such as BMW, Ferrari, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, and Toyota, whose large budgets rendered privately built engines less competitive.
Cosworth was the last independent engine supplier. Beginning in 2007, the manufacturers’ deep pockets and engineering ability took over, eliminating the last of the independent engine manufacturers.
It is estimated the major teams spend between €100 and €200 million ($125–$225 million) per year per manufacturer on engines alone.
How Many Teams are in F1 – 2007 and New Technical Rules
In the 2007 season, for the first time since the 1981 rule, two teams used chassis built by other teams.
Super Aguri started the season using a modified Honda Racing RA106 chassis, while Scuderia Toro Rosso used the same chassis used by the parent Red Bull Racing team, which was formally designed by a separate subsidiary.
The usage of these loopholes was ended for 2010 with the publication of new technical regulations, which require each constructor to own the intellectual property rights to their chassis, which prevents a team using a chassis owned by another Formula One constructor.
The regulations continue to allow a team to subcontract the design and construction of the chassis to a third-party, an option used by the HRT team in 2010 and Haas currently.
Although teams rarely disclose information about their budgets, it is estimated they range from US$66 million to US$400 million each.
Entering a new team in the Formula One World Championship requires a £25 million (about US$32 million) up-front payment to the FIA, which is then repaid to the team over the course of the season.
As a consequence, constructors desiring to enter Formula One often prefer to buy an existing team: BAR’s purchase of Tyrrell and Midland’s purchase of Jordan allowed both of these teams to sidestep the large deposit and secure the benefits the team already had, such as TV revenue.
How Many Teams are in F1 – Racing Cars and Drivers
Every team in Formula One must run two cars in every session in a Grand Prix weekend, and every team may use up to four drivers in a season.
A team may also run two additional drivers in Free Practice sessions,which are often used to test potential new drivers for a career as a Formula One driver or gain experienced drivers to evaluate the car.
Most modern drivers are contracted for at least the duration of a season, with driver changes taking place in-between seasons, in comparison to early years where drivers often competed at an ad hoc basis from race to race.
Each competitor must be in the possession of a FIA Super Licence to compete in a Grand Prix. This licence is issued to drivers who have met the criteria of success in junior motorsport categories and having achieved 300 kilometres (190 mi) of running in a Formula One car.
Drivers may also be issued a Super Licence by the World Motor Sport Council if they fail to meet the criteria. Although most drivers earn their seat on ability, commercial considerations also come into play with teams having to satisfy sponsors and financial demands.
Teams also contract test and reserve drivers, to stand in for regular drivers when necessary and develop the team’s car. There is reduction on testing the reserve drivers’ role which now mainly takes places on a simulator, such as rFactor Pro, which is used by most of the F1 teams.
How F1 Drivers Choose Racing Numbers
Each driver chooses an unassigned number from 2 to 99, excluding 17 which was retired following the death of Jules Bianchi upon entering Formula One, and keeps that number during his time in the series.
The number one is reserved for the reigning Drivers’ Champion, who retains his previous number and may choose to use it instead of the number one. For example, Lewis Hamilton who is the 2020 FIA World Driver’s Champion still uses No.44
At the onset of the championship, numbers were allocated by race organisers on an ad hoc basis. This was from race to race.
Competitors did not have a permanent number throughout the season.
Permanent numbers were introduced in 1973 to take effect in 1974. That is when teams were allocated numbers in ascending order based on the Constructors’ Championship standings at the end of the 1973 season.
The teams would hold those numbers from season to season with the exception of the team with the world Drivers’ Champion.
Such a team which would swap its numbers with the one and two of the previous champion’s team.
New entrants were allocated spare numbers. This was with the exception of the number 13 which has not been used since 1976.
As teams kept their numbers for long periods of time, car numbers became associated with a team. For example, 27 and 28 for Ferrari.
Introduction of New Car Numbering System
A different system was used from 1996 to 2013.
At the start of each season, the current Drivers’ Champion was designated number one. His teammate number two, and the rest of the teams assigned ascending numbers according to previous season’s Constructors’ Championship order.
A total of 33 separate drivers have won the World Drivers’ Championship.
Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher hold the record for most championships with seven
Related: Will Lewis Hamilton Win an 8th Drivers’ Championship?
Lewis Hamilton has now equalled Michael Schumacher’s record after winning the 2020 championships. He also now has the most race wins.
Jochen Rindt is the only posthumous World Champion.
His points total was not surpassed despite his fatal accident at the 1970 Italian Grand Prix. There were 4 races still remaining in the season.
Drivers from the United Kingdom have been the most successful in the sport. They have won 18 championships among 10 drivers, and 278 wins among 19 drivers.
How Many Teams are in Formula One Grands Prix?
The number of Grands Prix held in a season has varied over the years. The inaugural 1950 world championship season comprised only seven races, while the 2019 season contained twenty-one races.
Throughout the first decades of the world championship, there were no more than eleven Grands Prix a season. A large number of non-championship Formula One events also took place.
The number of Grands Prix increased to an average of sixteen/seventeen by the late 1970s; simultaneously non-championship events ended by 1983.
More Grands Prix began to be held in the 2000s, and recent seasons have seen an average of 19 races. In 2016 the calendar peaked at twenty-one events, the highest number of world championship races in one season.
In 2020, the formula one race calendar changed due to global crisis which made some circuits inaccessible. The 2020 season has a total of 17 races with the last one being at Abu Dhabi on December 13.
How Many F1 Drivers Are There?
When discussing about the number of formula one teams, you cannot ignore the number of F1 drivers on the grid today.
So, how many F1 drivers are there?
In simple terms, there are twenty (20) formula 1 drivers. They are distributed among the ten F1 teams, with each team having two drivers.
Related: Formula 1 Driver Line Up in 2022
Also, there are reserve drivers who are called upon to replace drivers who are unable to race in a particular race weekend.
For example, Nico Hulkenberg was recently called upon to replace Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Is F1 Limited to 10 Teams?
There is actually no limit for a number of teams that can enter a Grand Prix. However, only 26 cars can start.
There used to be a pre-qualifying session for the slowest cars and new teams. After that, all teams would then proceed to do the standard 26 car qualifying.
Conclusion
In conclusion, formula one is a very prestigious global sport. It has attracted some of the best brands to join as teams.
Today, there are ten formula one teams on the grid. It is always exciting to watch the competition across the various races per year.
It is good to note that there are no limits to the number of teams that can participate in F1. However, the newly signed Concorde Agreement now has an anti-dilution fund.
The idea is to help protect the value of existing teams in formula one.
In simple terms, any new team joining F1 will be required to pay $200 million. The cash will be shared equally among the ten teams in formula one today.
Among the latest brands to show interest in joining F1 include Porsche and Audi, both of which are owned by the Volkswagen Group. The other is the Andretti family, who have indicated their readiness to bring an American team into the sport.
Michael Andretti has already applied to form a formula 1 team. He claims to already have an engine partner.
It will be interesting to watch how this unfolds over the months ahead.
However, as at today, there are only 10 formula teams in the sport. These include Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, Haas, AlphaTauri, Mclarens, Alpine, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin and Williams.
