Teams should not expect “handouts” from Formula 1 to get them through the after-shocks of the coronavirus crisis, says series chief executive Chase Carey, but there might be “fair” assistance once the picture is clearer.
With the 2020 season start delayed by four months at least, the calendar set to be truncated and early races due to take place without fans present, the whole F1 business faces a substantial income drop this year.
Although urgent measures have been taken including delaying the major technical rules revamp to 2022 and a likely reduction in the budget cap limit to $145million, there have been suggestions F1 could lose multiple teams due to the repercussions of the pandemic.
In a call with investors, Carey acknowledged the expectation that the championship might need to support teams that run into trouble but said it was far too early to consider that.
“There’s been speculation at this point on to what degree do we need to help support select teams,” said Carey.
“We care about the teams but those are discussions we’ve not had to date. We’ll see where things are as we go along. But I think there’s too many moving parts right now to really engage with any specificity on that,” Carey added.
“The question is would we do something to support certain teams? We’re not in the business of handouts. But we’ll engage with all our partners and to figure out how do we go forward in a way that makes sense for everybody.”
With teams’ prize money payments reliant on F1’s own income, Carey said there was no avoiding the fact that teams faced a smaller financial pot for 2020.
“The prize fund is a contractual formula. We couldn’t unilaterally change it,” Carey insisted. “It’s a percentage of profits and profits will be down. It means the prize fund will be down.”
“We still have a lot of moving parts. We haven’t settled the calendar. We don’t know how many races have fans [attending]. So at this point we have a wide range of potential outcomes on the ultimate prize fund.”
“When we have a better handle on that, we’ll see where we are, and see if it’s appropriate or right for us to do anything, whether it’s with a team or with any of our other partners.
But we expect to be dealt with fairly and expect them to deal with us fairly,” he added.
Carey also said F1 promoter Liberty Media “expect the teams to be taking the right initiative to get them through it”.
“Really what we’re managing through is a short one-time event for us. We think the strength in this sport, the interest in the sport, the support we’ve got, whether it’s from fans or partners, enable us to get back there,” Carey said.
“I think there will be some lasting impacts but fans will come back, events like ours will continue to rise in strength and the type of partners we have seem to be more supportive than ever.”
“Even if we have a degree of a shakeout in the economy, we will certainly expect to get fair value this year. But we’re not going to play hardball, we’re going to deal with things as partners.”
“Whether it’s the teams or promoters or sponsors, we’re not going to be handing out candy to everybody,” Carey added.
“We’re going to expect to be treated fairly, but we’re going to deal with it as adults. And with the expectation that 2021 is going to look like the business we all knew four months ago.”
