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Prema would consider F1 customer car entry

Leading Formula 2 outfit Prema would be open to running a single-car Formula 1 entry if grand prix racing were to permit customer cars, says team boss Rene Rosin.

Charles Leclerc, PREMA Powerteam

Charles Leclerc, PREMA Powerteam

FIA Formula 2

Charles Leclerc, PREMA Powerteam
Antonio Fuoco, PREMA Powerteam
 Charles Leclerc, PREMA Powerteam
 Charles Leclerc, PREMA Powerteam
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF70H
 Pierre Gasly, Red Bull Racing RB13
Antonio Giovinazzi, Haas F1
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF70H

Prema currently has its drivers fighting for the championship in Italian and German F4, European F3 and F2 - and fields five Ferrari-affiliated juniors across the three levels.

Rosin says the outfit, which dominated F2's predecessor GP2 upon its arrival last year, would be keen to evaluate operating an F1 team if the rules were relaxed to allow smaller ‘junior’ squads to run single-car entries.

“Why not?” he told Motorsport.com. “Formula 1 is a dream for every team; not only for drivers, but also for engineers.

“Of course I know that it’s a dream, and it would be really difficult to obtain it.

“There needs to be a lot of changes in the structures of motorsport to do something to arrive at that point.

“It depends on how everything is organised, and in the case of a customer car I think it’s possible to be organised.

"But of course with the situation as it is today, no – it’s something that needs to be planned, needs to be agreed and needs to be developed, also in terms of regulations.”

"No sense" in F1 if Leclerc doesn't make it

Meanwhile, Rosin reckons that F1 will have lost the plot if Prema's runaway F2 points leader Charles Leclerc doesn't graduate to grand prix racing in 2018.

He also argues that Pierre Gasly and Antonio Giovinazzi, who made up Prema's dominant GP2 roster last year, are overdue a shot.

Red Bull Junior Gasly has combined a Super Formula programme in Japan with Red Bull F1 reserve duties this season, while Ferrari reserve Giovinazzi raced twice for Sauber at the beginning of 2017 as understudy to the injured Pascal Wehrlein and is now taking part in Friday free practice sessions for Haas.

“Drivers like Antonio, like Pierre, like Charles should be in Formula 1 because they fully deserve it,” Rosin said.

“How Charles is managing everything this year is something really incredible so he really deserves a chance.

“I think that they have to put him in the [F1] car, otherwise what’s the sense of the junior formulas? What’s the sense of Formula 1 either if we are not able to promote the best drivers to the field?

“Stoffel Vandoorne now is in Formula 1, but also in the beginning [as reigning GP2 champion] he was parked in Super Formula.

“If these drivers are not able to get into Formula 1, what is the sense in having Formula 2, Formula 3 and Formula 4?

"These kids are all dreaming of F1, and if they’re not able to do that there’s no sense in it.”

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