Jonathan Neale, the managing director of the McLaren team, has said that he hopes that F1's new teams are welcomed by the established names, saying that they need to be supported in order to secure the future of the sport.
The new teams have been widely derided in F1 circles just recently, with famous names up and down the paddock queuing up to point and laugh at Virgin, Lotus and HRT.
But Neale says that in the light of the loss of so many teams in F1 recently, it is vital that the new start-ups succeed in the sport, and for that to be possible, they will need to support of the established names on the grid.
He added that he respected complaints from the drivers over the danger of racing against much slower cars, but pointed out that the governing body should act on that, rather than the other teams.
With the withdrawal of Honda, BMW and Toyota in the last couple of years, and the failure of USF1 to make the grid, the F1 grid count would be a mere 18 cars if it wasn't for the three newcomers.
"As a group we have to be supportive in getting new teams off the ground," Neale explained to reporters ahead of the start of the new season in Bahrain.
"I respect greatly what the drivers are saying and one or two have raised concerns about it, but I think that's a matter for the FIA."
He added that: "We have to try and get as many new teams off the ground and stabilise them as quickly as possible because we need it in view of the disappointing losses Honda, Toyota and BMW [since 2008] is disappointing. I'd like to think that collectively we can achieve that."
Despite his broad welcoming message to the new teams, he did warn the governing body to keep a check on the HRT team in particular at Bahrain, with the new Spanish team having missed the whole of pre-season testing. Their hastily-launched car will make its debut in the first practice session of the Bahrain weekend.
"I wouldn't like to be an MD with a car running for the first time on a GP Friday in terms of the reliability package and how do you dial it in with such limited running and so few tyres," Neale muttered.
"I'm sure that the FIA will look very closely at it and if there are big gaps in closing speeds and plenty of red flags, then they'll take the necessary actions. And it's important that they do because we don't want yet more casualties before the start of the season."
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