The FIA increases entry fees for 2013
Formula 1 teams will have to pay higher entry fees for the World Championship than in recent years, according to the new version of the 2013 season sporting regulations recently published by the FIA.
The FIA published an update to the sporting regulations on Wednesday, October 31, which will apply during the 2013 Formula 1 season, with a new annex addressing the entry fees paid by teams. Until now, these fees amounted to 309,000 euros per team per season.
As we mentioned a month ago, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile has decided to increase the base fees and add additional fees per point scored in the constructors’ championship.
The world champion constructor team will have to pay the basic fee, which is now $500,000, or approximately €389,000, and in addition, they will have to pay $6,000, or approximately €4,670 per point scored. The other teams will pay a basic fee of €389,000, with an additional charge of $5,000, or approximately €3,890, per point scored.
The Red Bull Racing team, constructors’ champion in 2011 with 650 points scored, would have had to pay nearly 3.5 million euros in entry fees this season if the FIA had implemented this system last year. The Austrian team currently has 407 points, which should oblige it to pay around 2.5 million euros in registration fees for 2013 if it is crowned constructors’ world champion for the third consecutive year.
The FIA sporting regulations also specify that all teams must pay these entry fees by November 30th. Starting from the coming years, the fixed part must be paid at the same time as the registration.
Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, told *Autosport* that he understood the FIA and that his team accepted this new rule: « It’s a difficult situation. Jean [Todt, FIA President, ed. note] explained very clearly why there is an increase in entry fees. With the scheme they have introduced, it further penalizes teams that score a lot of points, but we can understand some of the reasons behind it – so we accept the FIA’s position. »
Another team director spoke about this new rule, it was Ross Brawn, who stated at the FIA press conference today that for the majority of teams, it won’t change much: « We would be happy to pay because it would mean we scored a lot of points. In fact, if you’re a midfield team, and considering that all the additional equipment we are currently paying for separately is added to the entry fees, I think for many teams, it will be very similar. It will make a bigger difference for the teams that finish in the top 3 or 4 of the championship.
The statements from Christian Horner and Ross Brawn suggest that the FIA could use this money to provide equipment to the teams, but for the moment, no additional information has confirmed this.
