Haas dubious about remodeling prize money structure

While recognizing  some of the system's inadequacies, Gene Haas believes that Formula 1's prize money distribution scheme should remain.

Liberty Media has hinted at changes it could make to the commercials contracts,  which bind the teams to the sport come up for renegotiation in 2020.

CEO Chase Carey has signaled that the company could cease paying Ferrari its annual $100 million prize money bonus.

But Gene Haas doesn't believe a change to a more collective-based system is warranted.

"The top three teams get 70 percent of the money and the bottom seven teams get the other 30 percent," Haas said.

"Obviously I don't want to be in the back that long, because I'd like to get up front where all the money is.

"It is ultimately a capitalist type structure, the best get the most money. I don't think racing should be a socialistic type enterprise where everybody deserves to survive.

"It is something that the people who work hard and finish ahead of you should."

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Furthermore, the American says Ferrari deserves the extra cash pay-put it receives in accordance with its historical ties to the sport.

"To say Ferrari doesn't deserve that Column 3 money, which is because their name is Ferrari... but Ferrari brings an awful lot of customers to these races," Haas told Racer's Chris Medland.

"So they're just taking a small portion of the ticket sales for themselves, but I won't sit there and say they don't deserve it.

"If you have a Mercedes or Red Bull, those are the guys that really bring the fans in. I think that they're necessary.

"We need to be careful that we don't take money away from them to give to a team that maybe doesn't deserve it...

"Our challenge is to show that we can compete with those guys and I think if we can do that, it gives us an aura of invincibility that I think people will respect."

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