Formula One teams could face a soccer-style promotion and relegation system, according to plans being considered by Max Mosley.
Mosley, president of the sport's world governing body (FIA), believes the system could be introduced if proposals to cut costs in F1 lead to more entries than there are vacancies on the grid.
F1, which is limited to 12 teams, has a feeder series, GP2. Although drivers move between the two, it has been very rare for a team to make the leap because of the huge costs involved in trying to compete in the top flight.
"There should be a system of some kind," Mosley told reporters.
"What ought to happen is there should be a formula below F1 which should be much less expensive and through which it should be compulsory to pass in order to get a (drivers`) super licence.
"Whoever is the best in that should be allowed to move in on whatever basis, rather like a league, and the least good in F1 should perhaps drop out.
"That is sometime in the future but it definitely is on the radar. In a logical system you cannot have a closed shop and we see that with the system that we have got now."
Mosley believes a promotion-relegation style system would help introduce young blood into a sport where several team principals have been around for 30 years or more.
"Until Christian Horner (Red Bull) came along there wasn't a single team principal under 50," said Mosley. "Whereas when I started there was hardly any over 40.
"We have all grown old together but none of us noticed because (Formula One supremo) Bernie (Ecclestone) was always a bit older than the rest of us and one or two disappeared.
"Frank (Williams) and Ron (Dennis) have all been there since the end of the 1960s."