It'll be OK I think, don't believe the newspapers saying 'is this the end of F1'. We might go as low as 14 cars - but in this case both Ferrari & McLaren have said they could possibly run 3 cars to put the grid at 16.
In the '60s Formula 1 regularly had 12/13 car grids as we remember heroes such as Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and John Surtees being crowned as champions back then. You only need 2 cars to make a race and you only see the whole grid in shot on TV for the first minute.
Budgets for 2009 are mostly signed off anyway and there are major cost cutting measures in place starting in 2010 including an off-the-shelf Cosworth engine that the teams can buy relatively cheaply to attract more independant teams. Budgets starting in 2010 are expected to be a maximum of £30-£40M per year - a drastic cut on the £300M some teams are spending now. £40M is excellent value for a 2 car team to big players like Vodafone / Santandar / Allianz / Shell etc, to reach the global TV audience of over 600 million people. Only the World cup and the Olympics can do this in world sports sponsorship, but they are not held every year, as F1 is.
I think this shake up was needed. I've seen for myself the enormous waste of money in some areas - crazy spending, just to be 'one ahead' of the team next door to them in the paddock.
I mean, is there really any need for the Red Bull team to have a 'motorhome' - no it's a building - hidden away in the paddock away from the fans, that is hauled all over Europe on 27 huge trucks?
I think the long term future looks very bright, but will be very difficult for a couple of years first.
