The deepening of the Formula 1 financial crisis has prompted Force India boss Vijay Mallya to say that the sport's owners must fix the revenue sharing model among teams for the survival of smaller outfits like his.
All eyes are on the future of midfield teams like Force India after the two smallest teams — Caterham and Marussia — failed to make the grid at the United States Grand Prix last week owing to ownership and financial issues.
Mallya is sad that teams barring the top ones are struggling to survive in a sport that generates revenue worth $1.7 billion every year. “We are very disappointed that Caterham and Marussia are no longer competing. The fact of the matter is that all these new teams (HRT, Marussia and Caterham) that were brought into F1 (in 2010) have sadly disappeared and there is a reason behind that," Mallya said.
“It is very clear that this distribution is skewed heavily in favour of the big teams (mainly manufacturers) and the smaller teams are at a disadvantage. For a sport that generates $1.7 billion in revenue, which is more than `10,000 crore, it is sad that small teams are no longer able to compete,” said the Indian businessman, who bought Spyker F1 in 2007 and renamed it to Force India.
The 11 teams shares a prize fund over $900 million, out of which a major chunk goes to the bigger teams.“You could run 30 cars with that kind of money. $900 million is more than sufficient to cover all teams. So the revenue generation is very generous, the way it is being distributed is something that needs to be fixed,” says Mallya.
There have been number of attempts over the years to introduce a cost cap but the idea is yet to find enough takers.Mallya has his own take on the contentious matter. “Top teams are against a cost cap because they all want to win the World Championship. You have Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mclaren and at the end of the day those teams benefit a lot strategically in their core business by performing well and winning the championship.
“Our budget is also way smaller than Mclaren, still we were ahead of them and with the remaining races who knows what happens. Therefore money can't buy performance,” he says referring to his team currently in the sixth place.Talks between Bernie Ecclestone and Force India, Sauber and lotus are expected to continue at the Brazilian Grand Prix.Talking about the Indian GP, Mallya feels it will be tough for the race to return on the calendar until the government approach towards the sport changes.
“I am personally very, very disappointed that there is no Grand Prix in India. I know all the teams very much enjoyed being in India and racing there. The drivers loved the track but unfortunately the government is not supporting the promoters Jaypee Group, as I'm told.