"New drivers typically also only get a dozen or so races to prove themselves..." Unless you're a pay driver who's bringing enough money to almost wholly fund t

"New drivers typically also only get a dozen or so races to prove themselves..." Unless you're a pay driver who's bringing enough money to almost wholly fund the team. Nikita Mazepin is surely one of the most talentless people to ever set foot in an F1 car, but he brought Russian Oligarch money with him so we'd have had to endure him for another season had Russia not invaded Ukraine. I'm genuinely curious to see if Haas can last the season now that they've shown him the door. Incidentally, I believe technically we could have as many as 26 cars on the grid (13 teams), but because even being epically uncompetitive at formula 1 is ruinously expensive, and the fact that only the top 10 teams get any prize money at the end of the season, the grid has been 20 cars for a while.