Pressure grows on small teams with planned prize fund change - MotorSportsTalk

Formula One’s smallest teams are to be put under even greater financial pressure as Bernie Ecclestone plans changes to how prize money is allocated.

Ecclestone plans to abolish the $10m payment made from the $698.5m prize fund to teams which finish outside the top ten in the points standings.

The payment was introduced at the end of 2009 when F1 sought new entries to the championship as BMW and Toyota left the sport.

Of the four new teams whose entries were accepted for 2010 one, US F1, failed to even start a race. HRT collapsed last winter and Marussia, who finished 11th last year, has not been offered a commercial agreement to remain in F1.

“They don’t have a commercial agreement because they are not in the top ten,” Ecclestone told The Telegraph. “We pay the top ten, that’s what we do. For three years we did something different because we had an agreement with [former FIA president] Max [Mosley] but from now on we will pay the top ten and that is it.”

Without Marussia the F1 grid could shrink to just ten teams fielding two cars each.

The move comes as Ecclestone prepares to float Formula One on the Singapore stock market this year. “It will happen this year and it will be up and running,” said Ecclestone.

“[F1 owner] CVC is getting on with it and putting all the bits and pieces together that they have to.”

An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”