Formula 1 "will not attract any more new teams without new owner Liberty Media shaking up its revenue system," FIA President Jean Todt believes, according to Jonathan Noble of MOTORSPORT. Liberty "has made emphatically clear that it believes the fact bigger teams get the majority of the championship's commercial-rights income is a major hurdle" to increasing the depth of competition. While the prize money structure "is laid down in bilateral agreements that cannot be changed" before the end of '20, Liberty wants to "overhaul the system after that." F1 is currently three teams short of its maximum 26-car grid capacity, "and has not featured that many cars in its field" since the middle of the '95 season. Todt said that "clearly we should be able to fill" the empty slots, but argued the revenue distribution disparity "was the main stumbling block" (MOTORSPORT, 4/5).
OVERTAKING TALKS: Noble also reported F1 teams "may need to step in and address the issue of overtaking if the racing does not improve soon," execs claimed. While F1's '17 rule changes "have delivered in terms of producing faster and more exciting cars," there remain concerns that passing "is now too difficult." Mercedes Motorsport Dir Toto Wolff believes that F1's new rules, allied to new ideas coming from Liberty Media, have "left the sport in good stead" but admitted the overtaking issue "may need discussing." Wolff: "We have an exciting car concept now, with the only question man remaining on overtaking" (MOTORSPORT, 4/5).
