13/03/2019
NEWS STORY
Much like Brexit, on and on and on it goes... and, much like Brexit, there is no real end in sight, for although both have deadlines, they are not cast in stone.
While agreement may well be found in terms of the post-2020 technical regulations by June's deadline, the financial side of things is another matter entirely.
Other than a budget cap intended to end the current spending war of the big teams and allow their smaller rival to play on a more level - and affordable - playing field, there is the little matter of the redistribution of the prize money which will also involve scrapping - or severely reducing - the bonuses awarded to some teams by the sport's previous management in its bid to sweeten them and keep them on side during times of unrest – of which the sport has experienced many.
"There are two fundamental initiatives," Ross Brawn tells i News. "One is to control the maximum amount of money a team can spend, the second is to overwrite the revenue model.
"For years the higher teams have had a higher percentage of the prize money, and that's self-perpetuating the core problem," he continues.
"We want to, and we need to, reward the successful teams, but we also want to tilt the rewards and make it much more of an attractive environment for the medium and small teams.
"Of course, while that's attractive to the teams at the lower end of the grid; it's not something which will be welcomed by the three larger teams," he admits.
"We're meeting some resistance, but I think they recognise somebody has to run the business. Somebody's got to run the sport, because if they run it themselves they'll just continue this cycle."
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