Commentary
Formula 1
The real F1 danger that Liberty must not ignore
Formula 1 sailed close to the wind last year, almost (but not quite) losing Force India from its grid. But it would be a massive error for owners Liberty to sit back and think that everything is rosy in its backyard right now.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Jan 7, 2019, 2:13 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
F1’s voracious appetite for consuming money has led to many a team’s sad demise. In Force India’s case, it was reborn thanks to a very smart, and very rich racing dad. Looking back now on the debacle of midsummer 2018, it proves how the fickle hand of fate can punch a F1 team in the financial nutsack.
With owner Vijay Mallya having big issues in his native India, it was fortunate that another billionaire, Lawrence Stroll, was on the scene to bail out the Silverstone-based team. Even then, it became a saga, and required a huge scramble behind the scenes that even involved the sport’s governing body’s assistance!
With its financial future now assured as ‘Racing Point’ – or whatever name it chooses to adopt – it’s clear that it’s only a matter of time before attention will turn to another team that’s suffering monetary hardship. And as of today, you have to conclude that it’s Williams.
Yes, one of the greatest teams our sport has ever known – the third-most race winning team in history, a squad with a superb history that powered Jones, Rosberg, Piquet, Mansell, Prost, Hill and Villeneuve to the ultimate of glories. But fast-forward to the present day and, as Force India proved, you can have the best engine on the grid and still be in danger of running aground.
Here’s the stark reality: Sir Frank’s team has lost its main Bacardi Group (Martini) sponsorship for 2019. Sergey Sirotkin, backed by SMP Racing rubles, is gone, as is Lance Stroll and his father’s bankrolling. I’m not privy to the exact figures, but that’s got to be in the ballpark of $50million, and then you have to factor in the loss of its future prize money income as it dropped from fifth in 2017 to last place in 2018 – and that’s quite some deficit.
So far, we’ve only had new sponsorship from Poland's PKN Orlen announced – as it nails its colours to Robert Kubica’s comeback – with talk of that being worth some way north of $10m. But that’s still somewhere approaching a $40m black hole to fill.
Behind the scenes, Williams’s commercial department is working hard to address this. And I wish them the very best of luck, as nobody wants to see this illustrious team under threat – especially with its bold driver choices for 2019, which also must surely be applauded.
That said, Williams is not exactly coming from a position of strength entering 2019, given last year’s results and miserly haul of just seven points…
Williams is also the only publicly-traded F1 team on the grid, with Sir Frank owning the controlling shares as the overall patriarch of the company and his daughter Claire effectively running the team at the track in a deputy team principal role. That makes it quite unique, but F1 is a results-based business and with no ‘minnow teams’ on the grid any more, the spectre of remaining last on the grid cannot be ignored for long.
Once again, the onus here must fall upon F1’s owners Liberty to do more to help its teams. As I wrote back in August, it had to jump in and save the day for the good of the sport. F1's owners managed to scramble through, but is that going to become the norm? Isn’t prevention better than cure?
A budget cap would clearly help in this case, and if spending was restricted to, say, $150m per season, it would be close to what Williams already shells out. But, crucially, it would stop its rivals from being able to spend more to further out-develop its cars, giving Williams the chance to catch up – especially in years with regulation changes.
Further complicating its situation is the ‘Haas model’ – where Williams' American-owned rival has a technical tie-up with Ferrari that shortcuts the cost of many development areas that a ‘regular’ constructor cannot. F1 having fought against ‘customer cars’ for so long, here’s a variation on that theme that undermines its own business model. Is that right? Or should new teams only be allowed concessions like this for a limited time, as we’ve seen in MotoGP?
Since Liberty took over the running of the sport, the revenue it shared with teams – essentially the prize money – dropped immediately by $43m. The main reason for this was Liberty spends more money than the previous owners ever did, basically replacing the one-man show of Bernie Ecclestone with, well, regular staff doing normal tasks like marketing and sales.
From the plan presented in Bahrain last year, we know that Liberty held firm against vociferous opposition from the big teams against a plan to give the smaller teams a bigger slice of the F1 commercial pie from 2021. The fact it showed a willingness to upset people in the way it dealt with the issue must now be followed through with a future budget cap.
It’s not as if the sport is awash with new money rolling in right now, and with Martini gone there’s going to be a lot of space to fill on that Williams bodywork. As Claire Williams said at the time of Bacardi Group’s withdrawal, “we are financially stable at the moment” and “strong partner community is central to our operation”, but I fear for its long-game prospects given the current terms that teams have to operate under.
It would be a tragedy to lose this great name from the F1 grid, but as we’ve seen with the likes of Brabham and Lotus, this sport is no respecter of reputations when the cashflow doesn’t add up following a fall from competitive grace. As Ross Brawn says, the lack of chances for midfield teams to appear on the podium is "unacceptable" and he'd like the rate of change within the sport to be accelerated.
So come on, Liberty, continue the push to level the financial playing field for your loyal teams, and then create a more viable landscape that would allow some fresh blood into the game – if only to give its high-value and historically-important competitors someone to beat.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Grosjean: Haas needs to adapt after "changing league"
Next article Binotto to replace Arrivabene as Ferrari F1 team boss
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Charles Bradley
Mika Hakkinen on his darkest day in F1
Formula 1
Formula 1
Mika Hakkinen on his darkest day in F1
Dillon: Spotter was “wrong” to shout “wreck him!” before Hamlin clash
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Dillon: Spotter was “wrong” to shout “wreck him!” before Hamlin clash
Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”
More from
Sergey Sirotkin
Sirotkin to stay as Renault F1 reserve in 2020
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sirotkin to stay as Renault F1 reserve in 2020
Sirotkin replaces stranded Lundgaard for F2 testing
FIA F2
FIA F2
Sirotkin replaces stranded Lundgaard for F2 testing
Sirotkin: F1 exit more painful now than before
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sirotkin: F1 exit more painful now than before
More from
Williams
James Vowles explains request for review of F1 cost cap
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
James Vowles explains request for review of F1 cost cap
Williams Racing is suing a local garage owner for £1million
Formula 1
Formula 1
Bahrain GP in Malaysia
Williams Racing is suing a local garage owner for £1million
Latest news
Tom Cruise interested in racing ARCA car, per NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
15 min
Tom Cruise interested in racing ARCA car, per NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell
Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
3 h
Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction
William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
3 h
William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix
Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 3 h
Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe