Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says it has brought a protest against Force India to ensure it receives “equal” treatment with its rival team.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix stewards are expected to rule tomorrow on the protest. While the detail of Haas’s complaint hasn’t been disclosed, Steiner said in response to a question from RaceFans they are “seeking equality for all the teams.”RaceFans understands Haas is querying whether Racing Point Force India, which was admitted to the championship as a new constructor at mid-season having taken over Sahara Force India, holds the necessary intellectual property to their car’s design. The question puts Force India’s claim to a share of F1’s prize money into jeopardy.
Haas entered F1 in 2016. As a new constructor it was not entitled to a share of F1’s ‘column one’ prize money during its first two seasons.
“We came into Formula 1 under certain circumstances,” Steiner explained when asked by RaceFans. “We were aware of what we had to do. We did it all. And we feel that this was not done this time with Force India.
“So that is we are just seeking equality or at least an explanation why it isn’t done.”
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The two teams have been at odds over the prize money matter since Force India was brought out of administration ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix. Steiner admitted they chose to protest at the final round of the championship as a last resort having not received responses from Formula One Management or the FIA.
“We tried to mediate and find an amicable solution but we didn’t get either a good or bad answer, we didn’t get any answer,” he said. “At a certain point you need to do what you need to do.”
“The problem is maybe bigger than Force India,” he added. “We are just seeking that everybody is treated equally. That is the only thing we are seeking.
“We are not trying to get more, we are just trying that everybody which is in this position also in the future knows what they are going to do.”
Asked whether Haas is seeking to receive extra prize money for its 2016 and 2017 participation, or a reduction in Force India’s earnings for this season, Steiner said the team is prepared to accept either.
“That’s not my decision,” he said. “As long as we get the same share I cam fine with it. Where they take it, I don’t care. That is FOM’s problem, not mine.”
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bosyber (@bosyber)
23rd November 2018, 18:55
Not quite sure fair to the point of scorched earth for everyone is great for the future of F1, but it looks like HAAS sure learned how F1 has been working.
Sundar Srinivas Harish (@sundark)
24th November 2018, 1:04
To be fair, its only a scorched earth policy if the latter of the two solutions mooted here is put into place. Haas had out forth their point of view many months ago, and if F1 Holdings did not respond to them, it seems like the organisers simply ignored their pleas hoping that they would go away.
At the end of the day, money is the lifeblood of any organisation, moreso in expensive sports, and Haas is prepared to fight for a larger share of the pie, whether in absolute terms by getting more money for their first two seasons, or in relative terms by RPFI losing money for this season and the next.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
24th November 2018, 1:56
Whoa, that’s rather dumb on the part of FOM – you can’t make these sort of problems go away by ignoring them.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
24th November 2018, 2:46
Exactly,
I suspect, the lack of response may be because there isn’t really one that wouldn’t show them to have made a major misjudgement in trying to plug a hole.
Don’t blame HAAS at all for raising it. They have played by the rules and deserve an answer. Whether it’s the one they want is a completely different matter but an answer needs to be given.
Trido (@)
24th November 2018, 2:20
And I thought Ferrari were the biggest complainers on the grid. They have nothing on Steiner and Haas.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
24th November 2018, 2:26
If you started an F1 team by the rules with no prize money earned for your first years, and see a new entrant come in and make money day 1, you’d be complaining about this too.
Yaru
24th November 2018, 4:41
Technicalities aside, it’s the same team. Haas just has sour grapes.
xcm
24th November 2018, 7:00
Technically (ie, factually), it is NOT the same team… you will see this after Abu Dhabi.
kpcart
24th November 2018, 5:13
Oh cone on, everyone is entitled to complain if the rules are unclear.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
24th November 2018, 2:25
Fair enough, can’t dislike him for this. HAAS did a lot of preparation to get where they are. There’s no doubt they invested massively in building their team. For another investor to just buy a team and being able to appreciate that value from day 1 is a bit crazy.
I don’t think it makes sense to retroactively give HAAS all this money, rules are rules and to go back on that is crazy. Now the season is over and the fear of seeing a team drop out mid-season is over, I’d love to see Stroll’s deal to grab Force India for his son be more intensely scrutinised.
If someone wants to buy Force India, then sure, allow them to do so, but it should be for the right reasons with the same rules as anyone who wants to enter F1, not on a whim so their son has a cheaper place to drive.
grat
24th November 2018, 4:17
I’m hoping the goal is to force FIA/LM to revisit the topic of prize money distribution before 2020.
I’d support that.
Yaru
24th November 2018, 4:46
If someone wants to have a racing team and have more cars on the grid, then I’m happy whatever.
Also, I certainly rather not see all the Force India investments go to waste.
Haas just has sour grapes because they didn’t have the patience to wait for a good deal
Michael Ward
24th November 2018, 4:44
the whole racing point force india deal was rushed and shady as, once they became aware that the team couldn’t be sold as a going concern deals were cut to allow parting out the assets, nullifying the existing entrant and creating a new one, gaining financing, which crucially includes the prize money that the team isn’t really due anymore, the FOM rushed to get the other teams to sign waivers to allow the money to be given to the new entrant but not every team signed the same document and there were different clauses in the waivers, Haas claims their waiver didn’t have anything to do with force india being a new entrant or something like that, this issue has been bubbling away since the mid year break and the FOM just hid it’s head in the sand and hoped it will just go away but problems like this, worth millions of dollars, don’t just go away.
Mark in Florida
24th November 2018, 5:11
I said in an earlier post that this was what the Haas protest was all about. It probably made Gunther sick to his stomach to see how the FIA/ FOM rolled over for Laurence Stroll. Stroll didn’t even buy the team! All he did was purchase the assets like it was a cheap garage sale. Malliya and company still hold the ip and rights to the Force India identity. It was all of the legal entanglements with the Indian government that put a halt on a straight out purchase of the ongoing team. That is the crux of Gunthers argument, if this is a new team then why the difference in rules? This is negligence at best and discriminatory at worst. The powers that be have a lot of explaining to do and ignoring it won’t make it to away. I hope that Haas gets some satisfaction from this meeting one way or another.
Jet
24th November 2018, 9:31
The silence is cause the deal has already probably already been made. FIA probably told them they would get the points money if they buy the team, even though it was against the rules. So now it’s damage control in which either Haas wins or Stroll has to give up the money. None the less, it’s some serious ineptness on FIA’s part.