Racing Point Force India has been granted permission to keep the prize money earned by the Sahara Force India outfit, despite being an entirely new entrant.
Due to the F1 Concorde Agreement, prize money payments are complex and increase year-on-year for new entrants, with newcomers missing out on so-called 'Column 1' payments until they've finished inside the top ten in two consecutive seasons. As Racing Point is considered a new entry, they would have missed out on this payment until 2020 at the earliest, costing the team roughly $50 million (£38m) in total.
However on Friday all nine rival teams agreed unanimously to grant Racing Point access to those funds, new CEO and team principal Otmar Szafnauer confirmed.
"The remaining nine teams have signed, so to speak, a document that enables us to keep the money that Sahara Force India had earned in years past," he said.
It's believed Williams were the most difficult to convince, but eventually agreed and team boss Claire Williams refused to go into detail on the matter, adding: "We didn’t Immediately sign that document. we wanted to take some time to do our due diligence around it, around all of the issues, but as everybody knows and as Otmar has confirmed, all teams have signed that document. I don’t want to go into the details of our decision making process behind that."
The team is still set to miss out on substantial prize money after dropping to the back end of the standings, which will impact their 'Column 2' income which is based on the Constructors' Championship.
Why Racing Point Force India?
Szafnauer said the decision to retain Force India in the new name was not only because they wanted to retain some of the old identity, at least until the end of the season, but also because the FIA and rights' holder aren't open to chassis name changes mid-season.
"The reason is we started the year with Force India as our chassis name. Formula 1 and the FIA, they don’t like chassis name changes mid-season and I understand why, because it confuses the fans.
"We thought it was prudent to keep Force India for the fans; the car is still pink, we still have the same sponsors, the same drivers, the same motorhome, the same drivers and the same employees. If you look at us we’re exactly the same.
"Racing Point was added in front of Force India instead of Sahara just so we can distinguish between the old and the new. Racing Point just happens to be the name of the company in the United Kingdom that own the assets. That’s the only reason for Racing Point to be there. The chassis remains Force India and from a fan perspective, we think that’s the right thing to do."
Driver Changes?
Meanwhile there has been talk of Lance Stroll switching to Racing Point next weekend now that his father is involved with the team. Such a move would likely see a number of changes up and down the grid and Szafnauer didn't rule it out.
"For the short-term it’s the same two," he added. "It’s not impossible to change. A lot of agreements would have to happen, so it’s hard to predict [what will happen]."
Engine Allocation…
The team has also been told it must continue with Sahara Force India's power unit component allocation, rather than receiving a fresh three power units for each of its two drivers.
"Charlie [Whiting] said that we will continue with the engine allocation and gearbox allocation as if we never ceased racing, so I think in his eyes, that was the most fair thing to do vis-a-vis the other teams. That’s how we’re going to go forward."
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