Teams get advance payment from Liberty after revenue drop

Formula 1's owners will provide teams with an advance on their prize money payment as compensation for the sport's drop in profit in 2017.

As it concludes its first year at the helm of F1, Liberty Media continues to invest in several areas of the sport, boosting its staff, building or improving its infrastructure and undertaking large promotional events.

The various investments have led to a short-fall in revenue for the teams, with prize money falling by £31m this year compared to 2016.

Red Bull Racing's Christian Horner accepts Liberty Media's investment approach and the temporary drop in revenue it entails for the teams.

"The model that they have, compared to the previous management, obviously is significant different," explained Horner in Friday's media conference in Abu Dhabi.

"But perhaps, in the world that we live in, it’s appropriate for where the commercial rights holder wants to take the sport. So it’s inevitable that they’ve got to invest.

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"At the same time revenues are slightly affected by Malaysia not renewing, etc., but I think the rights holder made a very generous offer to those teams that want to take it to effectively advance monies to ensure that the money next year available to the teams is the same as this year and the latest forecast, on an interest-free basis.

"They’ve offered to basically fund that bridge for those teams that wish to take it. So, and of course, when you’re building a structure, you’ve got to invest in that.

"Obviously, they’ve moved premises, they’ve moved offices, they’re running a different ship to how Bernie operated it.

"Bernie was the salesman, he was a one-man show, which was always going to be unsustainable because there was no individual that could single-handedly replace him.

"I think with the structure that’s been put into place, hopefully dividends and benefit will come – but it’s going to be a little bit further down the road.

Ferrari's Maurizio Arrivabene echoed Horner's comments, believing the teams should remain supportive of Liberty's efforts, at least in its first year.

"I think for sure they were not investing so much money to have a sport that is falling down," said Arrivabene.

"After one year it is not easy to judge. I know that early December they want to present to us their plan for the future. I hope there is going to be at least a three-year plan.

"So, this year we were a bit together, a bit. We were together with them to support, to work and to try to build up the future but, as Christian mentioned, it was the first year.

"It's not easy to judge - yet. We need to sit down with them and see, and to look at their business plan for the next few years and then we can have a judgement of a clear picture of where we want to go."

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