There is obviously a minimum threshold that must be met. That's why there are provisions in place to make sure any new entrants have the potential to be successful--107% rule, facility inspections, 200M anti-dilution fund, etc. In fact, since the anti-dilution fund is distributed evenly the current backmarkers would have a financial windfall for the first several years of an 11th team.

The current backmarkers aren't even what I'd consider true backmarkers. Sure, Haas, AT, Alfa-Romeo, and Williams generally finish towards back, but at least they're all competitive with each other.

If you don't want to see traffic and backmarkers then should there even be 10 teams? Perhaps 9, or 5, or maybe they should only let the two fastest teams race. Traffic is an inherent part of racing.