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Haas will not get the $10 million start-up bonus that was paid to F1's most recent team newcomers. To entice the three new teams - known originally as Virgin, Team Lotus and Hispania - onto the grid for 2010, the bonus was paid by Bernie Ecclestone because teams only get official income based on performance from the previous year. "There's no money in the first year," the F1 supremo told F1 business journalist Christian Sylt in London.
But even the $10 million will now not be offered to Haas. "It's not the end of the world for Haas," Ecclestone is quoted by Forbes. "When they come into formula one they know. They asked to come in. Nobody asked them."
And he warned that team owner Gene Haas, a billionaire American thanks to his machine tool company Haas Automation, will have to spend a lot of money on F1 in the future. "If somebody wants to be competitive they come in and over four years they have to spend $1 billion as Red Bull did," said Ecclestone. "So we will have to wait and see." (GMM)
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (3)
Login to replymclarenfan1968
Posts: 1,027
Can this old fart die already?! Good grief! someone please strangle the this megalomaniac. He squeezes the race promoters high n dry but cant give up 10 Million for a team trying to put on a good show for once?
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Why am I not surprised to see Ecclestone do yet another pointless and greedy thing? I guess he simply cant resist the urge or something. Charles Dickens called: he want Ebenezer Scrooge back. ;)
khasmir
Posts: 893
What's the point of this discussion? Haas will get what was agreed upon when they joined. You can discuss a 1000 things they will not get that were never part of the deal...
I really don't get it. Is Bernie trying to discourage Haas after scoring points in their very first race? I'm pretty sure they have already spend nearly $1 billion since they started from scratch, not like RB who bought the existing Jaguar F1 team from Ford.