Haas fight for their right
The Haas team’s fight for what they claim is ‘equality’ over F1’s prize money could be heading for the courts after a showdown with the FIA stewards in Abu Dhabi.
Haas are angry that the team formerly known as Force India – now temporarily Racing Point – have been allowed to keep their entitlement of commercial rights income, even though they are officially a new entry. New teams traditionally have to wait two years to earn what is known as a ‘Column 1’ payment – worth around $30m a year.
Although Racing Point are in all functional aspects a continuation of Force India, who went into administration last summer, the complexity of that team’s finances led to the present situation. Unable to buy the complete package of team and entry within the deadline – in effect the Belgian Grand Prix, after which Force India’s entry would have been void had they had failed to race – the new shareholders bought the team’s physical assets and filed a new entry with special FIA dispensation. An arrangement was also reached with the sport’s owners Liberty Media that Racing Point could retain prize-money owed to Force India.
That didn’t go down well with Haas, who feel they have missed out on a potential $60m of income. Haas lobbied F1 chairman Chase Carey to find some compromise but, in the absence of progress, in Abu Dhabi they escalated the situation by protesting their rivals’ cars.
Their argument was that, as new entrants, Racing Point were breaking the rules in not designing their own cars. as their chassis had been created by Force India. The FIA stewards conducted a lengthy hearing into the matter, but in the end concluded that Force India were in the clear because the new team had purchased the assets including the intellectual property rights of the old.
Haas’s argument over Racing Point being given preferential treatment was based on the issue of whether or not they were a new team; in Liberty’s eyes, the old ‘Force India’ operation had continued so it was right that they be allowed to keep hold of their historical payments.
The FIA stewards’ finding contradicts this. “In relation to the submission by the Racing Point Force India F1 Team that it is not a new team, the Stewards decide that the Racing Point Force India F1 Team is indeed a new team,” it declared. “It is a separate and different legal entity to the Sahara Force India F1 Team and holds a different ASN Competition License issued by the MSA of Great Britain, and a different FIA Super License. It cannot be considered as the ‘same team’ as the former Force India.”
Haas believe they have a strong case to challenge the Racing Point payments and have not ruled out legal action.
“HAAS’S ARGUMENT OVER RACING POINT BEING GIVEN PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT WAS BASED ON THE ISSUE OF WHETHER OR NOT THEY WERE A NEW TEAM