Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber has delivered a somewhat withering assessment on Formula One's latest crop of newbie teams, arguing that the sport needs quality entries rather than simply pushing for full grid numbers.
With two weeks to go before the start of the season, the farce of F1's 2010 entry list is continuing. So far, only Lotus and Virgin Racing have launched and tested their cars, and while the Campos team has been bought out and is set to be on the grid in Bahrain, it will likely do so without testing their car.
Meanwhile, USF1 are on the verge of collapsing, with new reports of a merger with Stefan GP, who have a car but no entry for the season, still unverified.
And with the new teams with cars lagging behind in testing and those without cars set to face an impossible challenge in the early stages of the season, if they make it at all, Webber has attacked the current situation, describing it as "totally mad".
"I've always been a massive believer that you need quality, not quantity," Webber said about the efforts to expand the F1 grid to 26 cars for 2010.
"None of us would really agree to have three or four GP2 cars on the grid with us. That's something we don't want."
He added that: "What we want to have is like Spa last year. I remember how close the grid was. The cars were really close. It was a good race and this is how we want F1. We don't want more competitors but less quality. We need to keep the quality good."
He added that the new blood was necessary for the grid, and the teams had been given a "huge challenge" in getting their operations set up in less than 12 months, but said that it was clear that some of the teams were set to fail that challenge.
"I'm all for new people," Webber insisted, "We need to have new people in the sport because people are not going to be around forever.
"But unfortunately, these people cannot run before they can walk. They are facing a huge challenge, a massive challenge, because how can you learn when you don't test.
"It's absolutely clear that some of the teams are not ready to go to a GP. Some teams are not even going to get to Bahrain."
Webber is set to finish his own pre-season testing schedule on Sunday.
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