FERRARI COULD QUIT OVER BONUS

FORMULA ONE’S new owners yesterday risked driving Ferrari out of the sport by telling the Italians that their annual bonus payment is to be slashed from $100million a year to $40m. All 10 teams were sworn to secrecy over the details but

Sportsmail has learned that Liberty Media took the biggest gamble of their 15-month reign. Liberty Media chairman Chase Carey and technical director Ross Brawn outlined plans for post2020, though a wishy-washy press release was short on specifics. It did, however, promise to bring in a budget cap — thought to be around $150m — to a sport where

Ferrari and Mercedes splash $420m annually. It also spoke of having ‘cheaper, simpler, louder’ and more powerful engines from 2021. Ferrari made no immediate response, with president Sergio Marchionne considering his next step. He had threatened to take the team out of the sport if they did not get a suitable deal. Ferrari’s bonus is one of a host of financial and regulatory benefits they receive as the only team to

have been in the championship since it began in 1950. The press release said: ‘Revenue distribution criteria must be more balanced, based on meritocracy of current performance’ — news that delighted some teams. Claire Williams, deputy principal of Oxfordshire-based Williams, said: ‘It was an extremely good day. We hoped for change and they presented that change.’ On the track, Ferrari were quickest in practice, with Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel first and second. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton were third and fourth.