The financial inequalities between Formula 1 teams need to be addressed as soon as possible, according to Sauber boss Monisha Kaltenborn.
She has called for Liberty to rewrite the deals between the teams and the commercial rights holder, though the current deal won’t expire until 2020.
The agreement sees some teams take bonuses on top of their prize money, no matter their performance. Indeed, Ferrari took twice as much bonus money as Sauber in 2016, so it’s understandable that Kaltenborn wants the agreement to be rewritten.
The new management has expressed that they want to help small teams like Sauber to stand on their own and want to change the bonus system, but it’s unlikely that will happen before the agreement expires in 2020.
That isn’t soon enough, though, according to the Sauber team principal.
“I certainly hope that it’s not going to drag on until 2020 because I’m sure that when people make sure an investment, they do have a business plan in place that should start working when they take over and not start working in 2020,” Kaltenborn told RACER.
It would be hard to push through any changes, as all teams would have to agree to any changes before the deal expires, but Kaltenborn believes the system won’t work until 2020.
“The kind of system we have and what you hear from the new owners, we don’t see how the system is going to work until 2020, if certain financial privileges are given irrespective of what the result is.
“If you want to make the competition come closer you can also not work like this. So I think everything has to be looked at, and we have a completely new basis.”
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