Bucking the trend of most smaller teams, Haas F1 Team team owner Gene Haas believes the current pay structure in Formula One is a fair one.
As it stands, “top teams” such as Scuderia Ferrari, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team and Red Bull Racing receive a greater chunk of the sport’s wealth through pre-existing deals.
Whereas the likes of Sahara Force India and Sauber F1 Team, who receive less of a pay out, want the system to change, Haas believes that the “top teams deserve more.”
Talking to Autosport, Haas said: “Most savvy businessmen in the US are public companies and it’s bottom line, let’s face it. But since we’re the newcomers in this business, our revenue stream from Formula 1 is nothing, so anything we get will be greatly appreciated.
“We just have to be very very careful in how you redistribute the wealth because there are some teams at the top that have spent 50 years doing this, that have earned some entitlement to how the costs are distributed.
“I’m not saying that the teams at the bottom don’t deserve more, but I’m still saying teams at the top deserve more. You can’t just arbitrarily redistribute that because quite frankly winning races should come with rewards, and it should not be a socialistic-type structure.”
Haas understands that a change to the payment structure is inevitable however, given the sport’s new owner’s stance on cost-cutting.
“I understand that the new owners are typically going to do what new owners do, go out and raise revenue and cut costs,” he said. “And that’s exactly what they’ll do, and since we’re on the cost side of it, it’s a little nerve-wracking what they have in mind.
“On the other hand, F1 is kind of a crown jewel so maybe they’ll tread lightly, and everything will work itself out.”
