Back when the Formula 1 cake was last sliced up among the teams and the rich made richer, one of the biggest beneficiaries was Red Bull, with an annual premium payment of more than $70m just for being Red Bull, unconnected with its share of prize money. This is second only to Ferrari among the five teams that receive payment based on their historical record and perceived drawing power. <\/p>\n
Four of those five teams operate with a staff of 800-1000 \u2013 and fantastic facilities that can only be funded by such massive pay-outs. The remaining teams are struggling, with none of these \u2018legacy\u2019 payments but still a major proportion of big-team cost bases for the facilities they need. Even if they somehow are successful, they still receive only performance-related payments \u2013 not the extra near-$100m of Ferrari or Red Bull\u2019s $70m-plus. The smaller teams are essentially subsidising the excesses of the bigger ones. <\/p>\n
Those smaller teams \u2013 Sauber, Lotus, Force India \u2013 are struggling to remain viable as a result. These are good, high-calibre teams with a proven record of success over the years. So with questions over their viability \u2013 and therefore their future usefulness to the big teams in subsidising them and ensuring none have the embarrassment of being at the back \u2013 are the major players looking at ways to ease the financial burden of the minors? No, of course not. They are making plans to replace them, if necessary, with \u2018franchise teams\u2019 \u2013 small, independent teams that buy customer cars from the big teams. That way, the big teams get two additional income streams to keep feeding their bloated excesses: 1) the money that would no longer be paid to the small teams because they were not \u2018constructors\u2019 but merely customer teams, and 2) the money the smaller teams would pay the big teams to supply them with cars. Those smaller constructors that have remained loyal to F1, that exist only to race in F1, that have a fine race-winning pedigree, that have been part of the sport\u2019s fibre for decades \u2013 well, they can go and sink, can\u2019t they? <\/p>\n
There is a possibility of EU action to address the iniquitous payments. But by the time that happens \u2013 if ever \u2013 we may already be into the franchise team era. Meanwhile the sport will be reliant essentially on the five teams currently being subsidised by the smaller ones. But those five teams are rock-solid, right? Ferrari, tick. McLaren, probably \u2013 though it faces financial challenges if it continues to under-perform on track. Williams, tick \u2013 though it has a hungry cost base to feed. Mercedes? Only for as long as its marketing objectives are being met. <\/p>\n
Red Bull? Ah. Here\u2019s what Dietrich Mateschitz said recently: \u201cRenault take from us time and money, will and motivation\u2026 the aerodynamic rules do not allow our designer to use his full talent\u2026 when we see that we don\u2019t have any chance to win the championship because of the restrictions on aerodynamics as well\u2026 then we lose the desire. We are bad at being support actors.\u201d And on the matter of his team having committed to the sport until 2020: \u201cYou can\u2019t force one to stay when he wants to go out. I don\u2019t know if we will have our teams still.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renault Sport\u2019s inability to create a competitive engine is central to this, and it\u2019s difficult to see it continuing beyond its contract, which runs to the end of next season. Which all compounds the situation further \u2013 making the sport reliant on Mercedes and Ferrari for engine supply. Which points F1 even further down the scary vulnerability of the customer-car route. <\/p>\n
Can you spot what\u2019s gone wrong, the catastrophic errors that have been made along the way? It\u2019s not difficult, is it? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":752,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"tags":[167,198],"issue_decade":[121600],"issue_year":[121672],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/51995"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue_content"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/752"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/51995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225826,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/51995\/revisions\/225826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51995"},{"taxonomy":"issue_decade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_decade?post=51995"},{"taxonomy":"issue_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_year?post=51995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}