F1's "three rebel teams could be handed" a £100M ($160M) windfall to
"prevent another threat of a boycott," according to Kevin Eason of the LONDON TIMES. Force India, Lotus and Sauber "turned the screw on F1's rulers last weekend by
threatening to pull out of the showpiece United States Grand Prix in protest
at what they see as an unequal payments system that unfairly hands millions
of pounds to the biggest teams in the sport." A "frantic series of meetings before the start of the race resulted in a phone
call" from F1 majority shareholder CVC Capital Chair Donald Mackenzie to Lotus Chair Gerard Lopez. Mackenzie "pleaded with Lopez to call off the action in return for a compromise
settlement that seems likely to include a series of payments directly from
CVC's funds." McKenzie's call came after F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone "admitted he had no idea how to solve the sport’s financial crisis." Lopez: "I know CVC and Bernie have been looking at this but it is going to be a base
payment given to the smaller teams, the racers, which is essentially going
to make it possible for a normal budget to be pretty much closed here. To be honest, it is really not a complicated thing to do. It just requires a
bit of goodwill. There is a way to build a proposal in the next couple of
days" (LONDON TIMES, 11/3). REUTERS' Alan Baldwin reported former team Owner Eddie Jordan said that F1 has
"failed its smaller teams and should be ashamed at the way some of them
have been driven out of business." Jordan: "I am absolutely sick
of the way Formula One is being run at the moment." Jordan's small team "gave Michael Schumacher his F1 debut" in '91. Jordan: "It is completely unfair... this
business is about competition and it needs to be fair and seen to be
fair. It is not any of those things. Without the small teams you lose the very fabric of the make-up of Formula One." Jordan "railed at the system of bonus
payments to top teams on the basis of their historical contribution to
the sport" and said it was "completely wrong." He added, "They
(the small teams) have been lied to and misled because the budget (cap)
they had been promised... was never adhered to. No one gave it a
slightest bit of attention" (REUTERS, 11/3).
