Formula 1 technical director Pat Symonds has cited the sport ‘should really think about’ allowing teams freedom of deciding how many cars to run.

Teams are currently limited to entering a maximum of two cars per race and can only enter one car on exceptional circumstances, such as an injury to a driver.

Symonds was previously the chief technical officer at Williams Grand Prix Engineering, from 2013 until 2016, before his prior roles with Benetton, Renault and Virgin Formula One teams.

The 65-year-old is now a part of Formula One Management since Liberty Media became the sport’s commercial rights holder.

Symonds said at a Motorsport Industry Association conference last week, the possibility of allowing single or three-car teams should be considered.

The last race to see a three-car team was in 1985, when Renault would add a third car for Francois Hesnault alongside regular drivers Derek Warwick and Patrick Tambay, in the German Grand Prix.

“It hasn’t been on the agenda,” he said. “[But] it’s a good point and probably at our next meeting it’s something we will debate.”

Symonds revealed they are looking to increase the number of competitors beyond the current 20, as he cited the need for change.

“What has been considered is what is the ideal number of cars,” he said. “More in the context of ‘Should we introduce more teams to Formula One?’

“I think at the moment one of the problems that Formula One has suffered from is that the teams have probably held too much power. It’s a little bit of ‘turkeys voting for Christmas’ sometimes.

“I guess they’ll be worried that if there was a smaller number of teams with a big power base, that’s probably not conducive to change and we all need to change and evolve as our sport changes, as the world around us changes.”