Ecclestone admits not all new teams will debut

Bernie Ecclestone has admitted the possibility that some of F1's new teams might not actually make it to the Bahrain grid next March.

In 2010, four new teams - Campos, Lotus, Manor and USF1 - are scheduled to make their Grand Prix debuts.

The influx of entrants is due not only to cost cuts, but because the traditional $48m bond payable by new teams has been dropped.

However, it is strongly rumoured that one or more of the new teams will not make their debuts as scheduled, chiefly because the budget limit regulations under which they decided to enter were subsequently scrapped.

It has also been suggested that some of the new teams are now sitting tight so that their places might be bought by more serious entrants. This would be one possible explanation for Campos' opposition to allowing a 14th confirmed entry for the BMW-Sauber team for 2010.

"I think at the beginning all of them were serious projects," F1 chief executive Ecclestone told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport during an interview.

The Briton confirmed that the reason for the $48m bond, abandoned to entice new teams onto the grid, was to ensure that teams did not enter F1 simply to profit from later selling their official entry.

"I hope we will not be punished because of our generosity," Ecclestone added.