Thursday, January 13, 2011

Formula One report shows at least half the teams are struggling to stay afloat. Is the sport living on borrowed time?


According to an analysis by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, only four out of the 12 teams on the Formula one grid have secure, stable budgets. 

These four teams; Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes are secure from a financial point of view while the remaining teams are fighting for survival.

The German motorsports news page cited HRT as the team at the bottom of the pecking order with a budget of EUR 40 million and 120 employees. On the other end, Red Bull Racing has spent 330 Million annually. Other back-marker teams are barely scraping by as well with Virgin at 60M, Lotus 70M and William, Toro Rosso, and Force India each going on 80M a year.

Former Italian driver, Artuto Merzario thinks the sport is running on borrowed time before it collapses in on itself. "It will go back to being a sport for only a few car manufacturers" is what the driver told La Repubblica in an interview.

With HRT's split from FOTA, and Red Bull allegedly overspending, it makes me wonder if what Merzario says may have some merit to it.

But we all know how I feel about Formula One's economic standings.
Source: SpeedTV

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The list of f-1 teams that have run out of money and called it quits over the years is LOOOOOONG. But yeah a 4 make series is no fun for anybody.

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