"I think it's extremely difficult to see a privateer coming in, because of the investment and the facilities needed, but it's viable for a lot of manufacturers at the moment, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be viable for other manufacturers in the future, particularly the expanding market for Formula One," he said, "Different countries are now starting to establish our sport, so I think there are a lot of opportunities from that direction in the future."
Haug, meanwhile, paid tribute to 'nice guy' Suzuki and the commitment shown by all in his team, but emphasised how hard it was for independent teams to make the jump to the top flight.
"In this case, it is particularly sad because they have been nice guys, good drivers, very committed," the burly German said, "I think he worked very hard, but the fact that more teams have left
F1 than are currently staying in F1 just describes the fact how difficult it is to continue on that basis. The beginning looked very promising and they had quite a good set-up. At the very last moment, I think they went flat out, had good support from Japan and from various people, so it is a shame that they need to quit right now."
"It's not impossible, and maybe there is a chance that more manufacturers are coming, but it's difficult to enter Formula One these days if you need to build up from scratch and you need to build your own car. I think there is a more intense fight due to the manufacturers' involvements and their teams. Most of the manufacturers have their own teams, which is good for Formula One, but I think a complete independent team for the future has to try jump very, very high to make it into
Formula One. It's not impossible, but maybe not very likely in my view, in the next couple of months, weeks, whatever."
