The way i see this, it may be called F1, but that's not really what is happening at all. Look at an f1 car and say it looks like a normal car. However, look at the hardware and all you see is normal hardware. Some people are sponsored, some are not. The most exotic stuff you get is ES parts, which really ultimately reminds me of an entirely different type of racing. That type of racing is Grand Prix. This event in no way resembles F1, it is pure grand prix style, with companies promoting their actual PRODUCTION products by suping them up. When you look at a grand prix car, you know exactly what car it is, even if it isn't technically introduced to production yet, and companies cherry pick parts for sponsored drivers. But in grand prix there is always the GT class, open to anyone with the money to get into the race. They drive their own suped up cars, not parts given to them by manufacturers (shelby after all made his name with probably the most infamous GT car ever, the cobra). Since this competition really resembles grand prix infinitly more than F1 it seems to me that having a GT type class only seems fair. And heck, even if you want to make it like F1 they still have a qualification round. I'm not dissing this program, and i'm from the US so i'm represented, and i know i'm probably not up to being one of the top benchers, but there are plenty of other people who could come out of the GT class and pwn things up like the '64 lemans with the introduction of the AC Shelby Cobra MKII (placed 4th) to the GT class.