“A third car could be an unique opportunity for young drivers to get into F1. If it was up to me, I would have the maximum age of a third driver at let's say 23. You could make it a kind of development car for a talented driver,” wrote Verstappen in his column for De Telegraaf newspaper.
Of course, certain solutions could be found for running such a scheme in the series, and fielding a young driver is one of them. Another one, forwarded by Ferrari's boss Luca di Montezemolo, would be for the third car to be fielded by an independent team. That would ensure a competitive package for a newly entrant, which will prevent situations such as the one that happened in 2010.
Last season, all three newly entrants fielded cars that were at least 4-5 seconds slower than the front-runners, causing several traffic-related issues throughout the year. And although showing optimistic signs of improvement, the 2011-spec cars will likely remain slow as compared to the ones fielded by the already established F1 teams.
Verstappen's solution would also fancy the third/reserve drivers of the existing F1 teams, who under the current regulations only benefit from limited track time on the Friday's before the race.
“Let's face it, at the moment the so-called 'third driver' has little or no opportunities to drive,” underlined the Dutch racer.
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