Rival teams agree to let Force India keep its prize money!

In another piece of good news for the new Racing Point Force India F1 team, reports have emerged from Spa claiming that the new entity will actually not lose its share of prize money following a unanimous agreement with F1's teams.

It was expected that Force India's asset-based buy-out by the Stroll consortium would lead to the new entity being deprived of any rights to its predecessors prize money.

In reality, per the latest unanimous agreement reached with all of the sports' teams, Racing Point Force India will be entitled to 'Column 1' prize money - or funds divided equally among all teams which have finished in the top 10 places of the Constructors’ championship in two of the past three seasons.

However, with regard to 2018 , the team will only be eligible for prize money associated with the points it earns from Spa until the end of the season in the remaining nine rounds of the world championship.

The concession was likely the result of some lengthy discussions among the sport's teams, with everyone eventually coming to their senses and reaching a unanimous agreement to hand back to Force India its previously hard-earned prize money.

• Force India is dead, long live Racing Point Force India!

The team has however been stripped of all its 2018 championship points.

"The remaining nine teams have signed, so to speak, a document that enables us to keep the money that Sahara Force India earned in years past,” said Racing point Force India team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

"I think the biggest consequence is that we start from zero points, we forego the [59] points, because they belong to Sahara Force India, which is not an entrant any more. We are a new entrant, and start from zero.

"We will do the best we can and try to score as many points as we can in the remaining races, and see where we end up at the end of the season. And that will determine some of the prize fund for the following year."

Szafnauer also justified the use of the team's new appellation for the remainder of 2018, and which still includes 'Force India'."

"The reason is we started the year with Force India as our chassis name. And F1 and the FIA, they don’t like chassis name changes, and I understand why, because it confuses the fans," explained the American executive.

"And we thought it was prudent to keep Force India for the fans. The car is still pink, we still have the same sponsors, we still have the same drivers, we have the same motorhome, we have the same employees. If you look at us, we’re exactly the same.

"I think it would have been confusing to remove Force India. Racing Point was added in front of Force India instead of Sahara. That was just so we could distinguish between the old and the new," he added.

"Racing Point just happens to be the name of the company in the UK that own the assets. That’s the only reason for the name being there. But the chassis name remains Force India, and I think from a fan perspective, that’s the right thing to do."

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