Zak Brown thinks teams like McLaren do need to be rewarded for the investment they bring to Formula 1 but believes the current system of bonuses for big teams is unhealthy and needs to be changed.
Teams such as McLaren and Ferrari get millions of pounds in bonuses from FOM, no matter where they finish in the championship. Smaller teams such as Sauber has called for the bonus agreement to be reviewed, but it’s unlikely any change will be seen before 2020.
Brown agrees there needs to be a change but isn’t calling for a complete scrap of the system that saw his team take a £25 million bonus at the end of the 2015 season.
“We need equity split to be more equal, but I don’t think it needs to be equal across the board because I think some teams, such as ours, bring more to the table than others and they need to be rewarded accordingly for their tenure and investment in the sport,” he told Marshall Pruett. “But I do think the balance between first and last is too big and is unhealthy. And if it’s unhealthy for the grid, then it’s unhealthy for all of us.”
Liberty has already said they want to change the system to make it fairer for smaller teams, but the agreement in place doesn’t expire until 2020, and it can only be changed before then with an agreement from all teams.
