Sauber F1 Team boss Monisha Kaltenborn believes Formula 1 is an exciting sport to be a part of, even though she still believes that it is unfair how prize money is distributed.
Kaltenborn and the Sauber team have been against the current set-up of Formula 1, both on a financial and a governance point of view, feeling that smaller teams like themselves and the Sahara Force India team are struggling due to the imbalanced way teams receive revenue.
“That is indeed a bit disappointing, because we have such a fantastic sport,” said Kaltenborn to Motorsport.com.
“We have a fantastic product, and controversies are part of our product that also makes it exciting. Otherwise it would actually be quite boring.
“It doesn’t take much to change it in our sport, so it was of course frustrating because we really tried – Force India and ourselves – to talk to the stakeholders and try to get them to change something.”
Kaltenborn also feels that the team are unable to have much input in the decision-making done in the sport, and believes that the competition is unfair as a result, and is calling for a change to be made to how Formula 1 is governed of the sport as well.
“Everyone knows how this deals were done and the worse part about it is not that you want to change something just because you don’t like it anymore, it is having a massive impact on our competition, and that’s the thing we are saying,” added Kaltenborn.
“It’s leading to a competition which is no longer a fair competition. It has to do with these privileges certain teams get in terms of rule-making and in terms of the commercial distribution.
“And if that reaches a point where it has an effect on the competition, that is something we are fighting against.”
All Kaltenborn wants for the Sauber team is a level playing field, which would then enable them to progress and develop, but until changes are made to the sport, then they will continue to struggle.
“All we want is a level playing field. Then it’s up to you,” said Kaltenborn.
“You are good, you are bad, that’s your doing, but today even a team like Force India or ourselves, and a couple of others actually, were to let’s say, be in the top three, we could never get that kind of income.
“We could never have certain rule-making powers that other teams have irrespective of where they are, and that cannot be right.”
