Lance Stroll, Romain Grosjean, Hungaroring, 2020

Racing Point and Haas settle two-year-old row over F1 prize money

2020 Tuscan Grand Prix Ferrari 1000

Posted on

| Written by and

Racing Point and Haas have reached a settlement in a two-year-old row between the teams regarding the distribution of Formula 1’s prize money.

The dispute concerns Lawrence Stroll’s takeover of the team in the middle of 2018. Stroll purchased the assets of Force India, which now competes as Racing Point.

Formula 1 originally agreed to regard Racing Point as a continuation of the previous team. This meant they were entitled to continue receiving a share of the sport’s ‘Column One’ prize money.

However Haas argued Stroll had not purchased Force India’s entry to compete in Formula 1. In their view, this meant Racing Point should have been considered a new team and therefore not eligible to receive a share of prize money as was the case for Haas when they entered Formula 1 in 2016.

Haas successfully established this by protesting Force India’s cars at the final race of 2018 in Abu Dhabi. The stewards ruled: “In relation to the submission by the Racing Point Force India F1 Team that it is not a new team, the stewards decide that the Racing Point Force India F1 Team is indeed a new team.”

Haas therefore had grounds to argue either that they should have received a share of Column One income when they were a new team, or that Racing Point’s Column One income should be withheld. The row, involving Formula 1 owners Liberty Media, has gone on since the end of 2018.

However speaking in today’s FIA press conference Racing Point CEO Otmar Szafnauer and Haas team principal Guenther Steiner confirmed a settlement has been reached between the two teams.

“We’re pleased that it’s come to a conclusion and now the entire team can focus on what we’re here to do and entertain the fans,” said Szafnauer. “We’re happy it’s behind us.”

Szafnauer would not confirm whether Racing Point had received the disputed share of F1’s prize money. “As I said before it’s nice to have settled it and we should just move on and go racing.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2020 Tuscan Grand Prix Ferrari 1000

    Browse all 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix Ferrari 1000 articles

    15 comments on “Racing Point and Haas settle two-year-old row over F1 prize money”

    1. Interesting, I wonder what the compromise was?

      1. HAAS CNC machines at every Aston Martin location?

        1. That’s a good one. That could actually work

      2. Jelle van der Meer (@)
        11th September 2020, 17:20

        Racing Point buying off Perez contract and releasing his sponsors so Haas can get Perez skill & money cheaper.
        In return Racing Point got its share of the prizepot.

        1. I think you might well be onto something there

        2. This feels absolutely nailed on, RP certainly aren’t hanging around.

          Stroll Sr. seems to want to get everything straightened out no matter the expense as fast as possible which is quite refreshing in F1, where contractual wars and political machinations often have the feel of those dreams in which you’re trying to run but barely move from the spot.

          As much as I personally have distaste for the ongoing Perez affair it is good to see someone coming into F1 and being in the financial position to be able to nip things in the bud, unlike say the teams that joined in 2010 who were constantly in the financial mire and getting nowhere with trying to get an at the time blasé F1 to listen regarding financial sustainability.

          I feel like we could be in for some interesting, brutal power plays over the coming years, Stroll doesn’t seem all that interested in the usual Machiavellian stuff…

    2. It’s quite bizarre that there are such conditions to receiving a cut of the F1 pie. I’m sure that some learned person can let us all know what the logical reasoning is behind this condition.

      1. If you look for logic, look elsewhere.

    3. Perez and his sponsors

    4. Just what F1 wants, more confidential settlements :D

    5. Back room dealings got RacingPoint the ForceIndia team. Backroom dealings got RacingPoint their F1 entry. Back room dealings will get RacingPoint their share of a prize fund they shouldn’t be eligible for.

      1. And backroom deals kept the force india team in f1

    6. So this is another ruling that takes place behind closed doors, that only the parties involved knows and the other teams and all of us outside are left in the dark? I never expected F1 to be particularly transparent when it comes to rules and enforcing of them but after the ‘shady’ Ferrari engine mess I’d have hoped we were going to get a little more transparency. Can’t help but wonder if there are apparently more ‘detail-less’ deals going on that we don’t know of.

    7. I am guessing the settlement will be one Sergio Perez becoming a Haas driver for 2021.

      1. Sounds logical and the timing seems to fit.
        Ya gotta give Lawrence Stroll some credit. The guy gets stuff done.
        We could use more of that these days.

    Comments are closed.