F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone has agreed to give F1's three smallest teams a £20M ($30.7M) advance to "avert a potential disaster for the first race in Australia, amid fears that there could have been just 12 cars on the grid," according to Daniel Johnson of the London TELEGRAPH. Ecclestone promised to "bring forward prize-money payments with Force India, Lotus and Sauber all perilously low on cash flow." It is planned that each team will receive a $10M windfall "by the end of this week to enable them to compete in Melbourne on March 15." Ecclestone, 84, had already moved March's payment forward by a week, "helping Force India make the final pre-season test in Barcelona, and is said to be 'sympathetic' to their plight." Force India Deputy Team Principal Bob Fernley said, "Bernie has promised support, they will be able to do the first few races" (TELEGRAPH, 3/1). In London, Kevin Eason reported Force India has been "unable to bring their 2015 car" to the preseason test
sessions in Spain, turning up on Friday with "just three days left, because
of alleged problems with suppliers." The entire supply chain, "mainly based in the Midlands, is nervous after
Marussia and Caterham collapsed within days of each other last October." They
are owed millions of pounds and "anxious that a crisis in F1 could turn
Britain's fabled 'Motorsport Valley' into a desert of broken dreams" (LONDON TIMES, 3/2).
