Force India: F1 is too expensive
Robert Fernley, one of the leaders of the Force India team, believes that the current cost of Formula 1 is still too high and that measures must be taken to enable teams to achieve financial balance.
Robert Fernley, the deputy team principal of Team Force India, believes that Formula 1 is too expensive a sport and that something must be done if F1 is to remain viable in the coming years. Fernley specifically explains that the revenue from television rights and sponsors is no longer sufficient to cover a team’s expenses over a season, and that this problem needs to be addressed.
From a personal point of view, I think the basic cost of F1 is still incorrect. It needs to be reduced. I strongly believe that when you can’t make a profit with television revenue and sponsor revenue, then something is wrong with the sport, and I think that’s the case today. The costs are too high, Robert Fernley told Autosport.
These statements are not insignificant as it is in 2012 that the future Concorde Agreements will be negotiated, and the teams seem determined to secure a bigger share of the commercial rights pie. Currently, 50% of the commercial rights are redistributed among the different teams, but they hope to make Bernie Ecclestone bend to allow them to receive up to 70% of the revenues.
Negotiations should begin in the coming weeks, but there is little chance of seeing this request granted, and even if it were, Robert Fernley believes that it will only partially solve the problem for some teams.
« Even if you increase commercial rights revenues, there will still be a deficit and you still need support. I would say that today an average team spends between 80 and 100 million dollars as a small team – and the FOM revenues are far from covering that. So you need an increase in commercial revenues and then you need to make a profit, » added Fernley.
