'McLaren deserves a bonus, but system needs changes', says Brown

McLaren's Zak Brown has defended F1's current system of bonus payments to the sport's top teams, but also admits adjustments are necessary.

In addition to prize money awarded according to where they finish in the world championship, four teams - Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes - currently receive a constructors' championship bonus.

The system had been devised with the intention of locking the big team into the sport, but has been denounced as partial and unjust by Formula 1's smaller outfits.

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While McLaren executive Zak Brown believes the top teams deserve the incentive, he also thinks the system should tend towards a more equitable distribution of funds.

"We need equity split to be more equal," Brown acknowledged in a podcast with Marshall Pruett.

"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."

"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."

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