With the corpse of Manor still warm, Jean Todt has talked of new teams entering the sport and the grid increasing from ten teams to twelve again.

Manor, which finally went under earlier this year, was one of three teams to enter the sport in 2010, enticed by the promise of a level playing field, cheap competitive engines and various other tempting offers that seemed too good to be true.

The two other new entrants a distant memory, Manor finally succumbed in January this year having somehow managed two further seasons after being declared financially dead in 2014.

While Haas, who entered the sport last year, can be seen as a success story, many will surely look at the sorry tales of Lotus, Hispania and Virgin, all three of whom are living proof of the popular adage about how one makes a small fortune from an F1 team... start with a large fortune.

And yet, speaking at the FIA Sport Conference in Geneva, Jean Todt suggests there are more teams looking to enter the sport, enticed by the change of ownership.

"When we feel it is time, we will be able to make a tender," he told reporters. "At the moment we have ten teams and the idea is to have up to twelve.

"So we have an opportunity, if we have one or two strong newcomers it could be possible," he added.

"There are always rumours, but we have had some interest from some teams," he admitted. "But first we need to check ourselves the request, it's going through a kind of audit to see who are the potential buyers.

"If it's a big manufacturer, it's easy," he continued, "if it's a privateer, you need to be more careful. And then, once you are sure that there is a real interest, and once you're sure that people are able, like it was the case with Haas, for example, then we make tender."

At a time there is talk of a Chinese consortium seeking to put a team together, Christian Horner revealing that members of his outfit have been approached, Todt dismissed talk of a newcomer in 2018.

"It would be foolish to think that a new team would be ready in eight months, even less," he said.

As was the case before 2010, the sport is looking at ways to curb spending and level the playing field, as was the case previously it is the big teams who will decide the direction the sport takes, and any potential new team owners would be well advised to see how the dust settles once the current Concorde Agreement has ended and FOM has agreed a new deal for the sport as it moves forward.