Towards a Surge in Tuition Fees in 2013?

While the FIA has approved the technical regulations and calendar for 2013, it would be wrong to believe we are safe from all turmoil. Indeed, Article 13.1 of the sporting regulations, managing the entry fees, could be the next bone of contention between the governing body and the teams, as some of them are already opposing a potential reform of the FIA’s F1 Commission, where not all teams might be represented anymore.

Indeed, in the 2012 regulation, any team wishing to participate in the Formula One World Championship had to pay entry fees amounting to €309,000 (£245,000). However, in the latest version of the 2013 regulation, while Article 13.1 states that the entry fees must be paid by November 1st of the previous year, their amount remains to be confirmed in the context of discussions concerning the renewal of the Concorde Agreements.

According to *Autosport*, the FIA has indeed decided to review the registration fee system by drawing inspiration from the calculation of the Super Licence amount paid annually by drivers. Thus, to participate in the 2013 championship, each team might have to pay a base fee of €387,000 (£308,000), plus €4,650 (£3,700) per point scored in the Constructors’ Championship by the champion, and €3,870 (£3,080) per point for the other teams. In this way, the FIA, which currently collects about 3.7 million euros in registration fees, could collect nearly 13 million for 2013. According to *Autosport*, this amount could also be supplemented by an envelope of 15 million pounds sterling (nearly 19 million euros) paid by the holder of Formula One commercial rights, Bernie Ecclestone.

With such a system, the FIA aims to pool the ancillary expenses of the teams, such as services from Météo France, by ensuring that the teams achieving the best results (and therefore receiving the largest share of Formula One’s commercial revenues) are the ones contributing the most. The FIA could also finance part of its programs this way, notably the Action for Road Safety, which works towards road safety.

The fact remains that for some teams, this represents a substantial increase in expenses. Thus, if such a provision had been implemented in the 2012 sporting regulations, this season Red Bull would have paid €3,409,500 (based on its 2011 results) instead of the €309,000 it actually paid, which is an elevenfold increase in its registration fees. For the smaller teams, the increase would have only been 25%, while in return, some of their expenses would have been covered by the FIA.

Notably, a few weeks ago, *Autosport* already mentioned such a system but with different values: €500,000 base for all teams and €7,000 per point scored in the previous championship. This is in itself a sign that there have probably already been discussions between the teams and the FIA, concerning more the amounts than the principle of the scale, which is common to both versions. Indeed, with such amounts, Red Bull would have had to pay more than five million euros in registration fees in 2012.

In any case, this provision is still the subject of discussions and if applied, the date for payment of registration fees will also need to be revised, as the championship ends on November 25th, which is after the deadline set in the first draft of the 2013 sports regulations.

As it stands, however, it is possible to make some estimates of the fees that teams might have to pay to participate in the 2013 World Championship. Thus, after the Singapore Grand Prix, Red Bull would be guaranteed to pay at least €1,536,390 since they already have 297 points in the constructors’ standings. At most, the Austrian team could pay €2,736,090 in entry fees, provided they achieve a double win in each race during the last six events of the season. Perhaps more realistically, if the Milton Keynes team continues their early-season momentum, averaging 21.21 points per Grand Prix, it could cost them €2,359,929 in entry fees, nearly 8 times what they paid in 2012.