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Force India early prize payout 'blocked by Haas'

Force India's hopes of receiving an early cash boost from the division of 2016's championship prize money have reportedly been dashed after an intervention from one of their Formula One rivals.

Teams normally receive the prize money that they accrued from the previous season in May, but Force India are believed to have made a request to commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone to receive their share of the money early.

That can only happen if all the other teams agree to the release of funds ahead of time. And according to Germany's Auto Bild publication, unanimous agreement has not been possible in this case.

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The newspaper reported that Force India was turned down "because Haas voted against it."

"Auto Bild has learned that Haas refused to give approval for the advanced payment, although all the other teams gave the green light," the report added.

Force India has previously struggled with cash flow problems, but not to the degree of Manor Racing which went into administration earlier this month.

Manor had also been relying on a share of the prize money to give it the cash needed to continue racing in 2017, but the teams' hopes were dashed when they were knocked out of 10th place in the constructors championships by Felipe Nasr finishing in tenth place for Sauber in the final race of last season.

"It was imperative that the team finish in 10th place or better in 2016," Manor owner Stephen Fitzpatrick explained. "The dramatic race in Brazil ended our hopes of this result and ultimately brought into doubt the team's ability to race in 2017."

Finishing outside the top ten is said to have cost Manor around £11 million in prize money. Force India, finishing in fourth place in last year's championship, will receive a considerably greater pay-out when the purse is eventually distributed among the teams.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.