Why Bernie Ecclestone is completely wrong with his 'begging' comments about Caterham

Bernie Ecclestone

The F1 Drivers’ World Championship is not the only thing coming to a head this weekend – it looks as though the “smaller” teams in F1 are set to press their case for a fairer distribution of the sport’s commercial revenues. As the final race of the season approaches, the smaller teams see an opportunity to push for a change.

Ecclestone calls Caterham’s plan as begging bowl

A few weeks ago, F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone made damning comments about Caterham’s plan to raise funds as a disaster for the sport and ruled out putting his own money in the “begging bowl”. Caterham, who have not scored a point since their debut in 2010, went into administration last month and were absent from the two previous races.

Caterham announced their return for the final race of the season at Abu Dhabi, with the funds acquired from crowd funding. F1 has long been a sport for teams having a lot of money and the cut throat competition doesn’t allow the smaller teams having a low budget to survive.

Teams respond to poor business accusations

The smaller teams take exception to the accusation that they are in trouble because they don’t know how to run their businesses, claiming that the cost of the V6 hybrid turbos runs to around $43 million per team on average for PU and the cost of installing it, gearboxes etc. The 2014 Prize Fund will contain approx. US$ 835 million out of which approximately US$ 412 million is distributed amongst 4 teams in the Strategy Group (Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes and Williams).

Improper distribution of prize money

In contrast, the three smaller teams receive income from FOM ranging between US$52 and $64 million per year each. It’s easy to see why some teams haven’t made it till the end of the season. In today’s day and age, funding should really not matter from where it came from.

Having small teams is a part of the heritage of Formula One, and it should be irrespective as to know, how they are funded, when they do not have an equal share of the budget. The former team owner Eddie Jordan, now a pundit for BBC television, said at the last race that the treatment of smaller teams was a “disgrace” and blamed Ecclestone and others.

Having Ecclestone say something like that, has made people realize, whether the sport and the big teams, actually care for the survival of those teams at the back of the grid.

Engine cost doubled

There is plenty of money in F1, it’s just that the people with influence don’t want it to filter down to the smaller (and especially the newer) teams. When future generations look at the history of this period of F1, it will be obvious to them that the failure of the two teams came in the same year when engine costs doubled with the introduction of the hybrid turbo engines.

Sauber, Force India and Lotus have big financial challenges and are looking for a base payment that would ensure they, too, did not have to shut up shop. The money that is divided is not enough to support the teams that aren’t taking the chequered flag regularly.

Somehting needs to change, and it needs to be done soon. Clearly, Bernie Ecclestone was wrong about the comments, or atleast in the manner in which it was said. With two teams hitting the skids in such rapid succession, serious question are being asked about whether the huge costs of participating in an increasingly technology-based sport will soon mean only the very wealthy can take part.