As a new team in Formula 1, Haas F1 has a lot to do and achieve and to be perfectly honest, they are doing well so far. Having made their season debut in Australia on Friday, they are looking good to score point sin their first season.
Normally scoring points equates to serious dollars if the team can secure 10th place or better in the Constructor’s Championship but should Haas F1 do that in 2016, they will not be getting any of the F1 prize money regardless.
According to a story at Forbes, the team have no commercial contract with Formula One Management and will not get any portion of the prize money as they are new to the sport according to FOM boss Bernie Ecclestone:
“There’s no money in the first year,” Mr Ecclestone told Forbes over lunch in London yesterday. “It’s not the end of the world for Haas. When they come into Formula One they know. They asked to come in. Nobody asked them.”
Perhaps it’s one of the few teams who have entered F1 that could survive without any portion of the prize money. Even so, missing out on any potential prize money they may earn in their first year is a kick in the shin but perhaps the team knew that was the deal when they entered the sport.
Hat Tip: Forbes
Where’s the incentive for new teams.
If anything, this is the opposite of the way F1 should treat new teams. If, say, there were guaranteed prize money for the first year, maybe more new teams would be able to get off the ground…
Bernard Eccelstone does not want new teams, over and above those just necessary to keep his show viable. BE wants minimum sustainable (from his view) teams to pay out prize money to. Hence the payment in arrears for your top-tem placing the year before.
PS: To answer a Q well above: If your team ran constructors tenth position last year, and you get pushed to eleventh this year at end, then you get your last years 10th place prize money now, but nothing next year.
Glory.
I’d venture that Gene Haas is ecstatic to be running a team in F1 under any circumstances.
And I’m also 100 percent certain that he was well-apprised in his dealings with Bernie.
bernie is a piece of shit….
This is why there are only 22 cars on the grid now, when they used to have 36 trying to fit into 28 slots back in the 80s.
What if (and this seems very likely post-race) Haas pushes Sauber or Manor to 11th? Are both teams not getting paid then?
F1 prize money is always paid a year in arrears, so the cash the teams are receiving this year is for their performance in 2015. I don’t know, but this story could just be a restating of that fact, Haas will not get any cash until next year, and then only if they are inside the top ten (which shouldn’t be a problem). However during pre-season testing I did read that they had yet to sign an agreement (the current version of the Concorde agreement) with FOM. If this is still unsigned, then they may not even get anything next… Read more »
I imagine by the fact it got coverage on the telly, it is signed, or close to.
“they are looking good to score point sin their first season”
Points sin?
Come on Francis, figure it out…
I’ve heard a rumor that teams don’t have to pay freight costs for the rest of the season once they score points. I have no idea if its true, but if it is well at least that’s something.
I’m wondering though how a team can join F1 without an FOM contract? How does that even happen?
WE should all boycott buying anything Haas from anywhere FOM. Let’s find some young enterprising fellow and buy his Haas knockoffs. This just absolutely sucks and is the biggest reason why Bernie should go. I know a contract is a contract but the drivers and team haven’t had a contract in years. #BernieSucks