A new way of divvying up the F1 money

[MrKipling43]

This is a theory my wife and I came up with over the weekend. I'd be interested to hear thoughts.

Basically the idea is that each team is set a 'target' based on their budget. My maths and the proportions may be off, but treat this as a proof of concept

This is based on the idea that there is £700m to be split between the teams at the end of each year in 'prize money'. This theory is designed to completely replace the current model, and it would work like this...

First of all you take the £700m and you split it in to three parts. 1/3 (£233m - about £61k per point) goes to points, 2/3 (£466m) goes to targets. The prize money in each target group is split between those who achieve the target. Any target groups that are empty, the money is divided up equally between all the teams.

Budget £200m+ (Target A1)
You must win the Drivers' Championship
Budget £200m+ (Target A2)
You must win the Constructors' Championship (target A2)

Budget £150m-200m (Target B1)
Exceed the number of points scored last season, in total both of your cars must finish X% of races
Budget £100m-150m (Target B2)
Exceed the number of points scored last season, in total one of your cars must finish X% of races

Budget £80m - £100m (Target C1)
Exceed the number of points scored last season, in total both of your cars must finish X% of races
Budget less than £80m (Target C2)
Exceed the number of points scored last season, in total both of your cars must finish X% of races

First two years in F1 (Target D)
In total both of your cars must finish X% of races

Distributed like this:

A1: 5%
A2: 5%
B1: 12.5%
B2: 12.5%
C1: 15%
C2: 15%
D: 25%

Now, I couldn't come up with a reasonable percentage for race completions and I couldn't be arsed to work out the completion rate for the teams, but if the last race was the race just gone for 2014, this is roughly how the prize money would be distributed for this year.

	A1	A2	Target	Points	Share	Total prize revenue
Red Bull	Fail	Fail	Nil	£22,644,084	£16.8m	£39,444,084
Ferrari	Fail	Fail	Nil	£12,748,680	£16.8m	£29,548,680
Mercedes	Pass	Pass	£46m	£39,520,908	£16.8m	£56,320,908
McLaren	Fail	Fail	Nil	£9,733,988	£16.8m	£25,533,988

	B1	Target	Points	Share	Total prize revenue
Lotus	Fail	Nil	£607,080	£16.8m	£17,407,080
Williams	Pass	£67.5m	£15,419,832	£16.8m	£99,719,832

	B2	Target	Points	Share	Total prize revenue
No teams	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

	C1	Target	Points	Share	Total prize revenue
Sauber	Fail	Nil	Nil	£16.8m	£16.8m
Toro Rosso	Pass	£69.9m	£1,821,240	£16.8m	£88,521,240

	C2	Target	Points	Share	Total prize revenue
Force India	Pass	£34.95m	£7,709,916	£16.8m	£59,459,916
Caterham	Fail	Nil	Nil	£16.8m	£16.8m
Marussia	Pass	£34.95m	£121,416	£16.8m	£51,871,416

Now, CLEARLY, there's something wonky with the way I've done this, with Williams taking nearly £100m and Toro Rosso £88.5m, but I think this proves the validity of the theory itself... look at the benefit for massively over-achieving on your budget.

Anyway, that's my idea. It's probably TL;DR, but any input it welcome!

[//j17]

What about following the model used to draft new players in to the NFL?

In NFL the worst-performing team from one season gets first pick of the new players coming out of college football, stopping the teams with the deepest pockets just buying all the best players even if just to stop another team having them. So how about the end-of-season money being split on a sliding scale, with the last-placed team getting the most and that year's constructor champions getting zero?

Teams should get separate prize money at each race, so it's still worth coming 21st rather than 22nd and there isn't a rush for last place. Come the end of the season though the teams at the back get a boost to move them forward and those at the front get the reins pulled in a bit - and have to switch back to super-quilted toilet paper, rather than £50 notes in the factory toilets.

[MrKipling43]

Funnily enough, that was my inspiration for 'backloading' the target money - you get more the further down the field you are. A simpler solution I had come up with was the the prize money simply gets cycled down so first place in constructors gets the money normally awarded to fourth, last gets first place prize money and so on for the first/last four places. But I think the midfield is in just as much trouble.

With a target-based system you could get more even distribution throughout the field as well as big rewards for having a lower budget and over achieving, which may force teams to rethink how much they're spending and whether they might be better off moving up or down a group (which, would of course, require rejigging of the money split, but that's ok).

You'd also be able to try to get sponsors to loan you money against the prize fund - balancing current development against next year's budget and it might add an interesting bit of spice for those in the lower echelons of the championship without having to dilute or pollute the F1 World Championship with a two-tier championship.

[vojx]

To reward points scored & low budget, if the WCC points scored were divided by the budget, you'd get a relative "efficiency" factor. Then rank them, and reward on a sliding scale (most efficient most money etc).
To be a little more altruistic, finishing positions could be considered which would encourage the 11-22 places to fight in the race.

[Eric Mc]

That's not the type of conversation I have with my wife.

[andygo]

Perhaps you should Eric. You can't keep things like this bottled up, don't be shy,it's not good for you.

[Some Gump]

TBH, splitting the money should be a piece of piss - but the dodgy nature of F1 contracts make it difficult.

For anyone to actually turn up and physically race, the bill is approx. 60m. This covers engines, logistics, making a car - and pretty much bugger all else - very little in season development, etc etc.

So, make the "appearance split" for 12 teams 50m each. Everyone has an obligation to get 10m sponsorship, at which point they'll be able to survive, but with a car that's pretty Caterham / Marussia in nature. If they fail to do the commercials, they fail as a company. Noone has a right to be there unless it's earned.

Keep a decent spread of cash for points - otherwise it'd not be a competition. Accept that e.g Ferrari DO bring more to the sport, but not as much as they currently get. After all, Ferrari benefit from F1 massively at the same time as F1 benefits from them. Therefore, soften the "bump" for the most successful teams historically (currently Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren Williams etc). IMO this needs to be there so that you don't get someone doing an Abromavich and buying a win, causing a proper team to die. Make the season winnings still very important, and additional bonuses for 3, 5 and 10 year track record (which diminish in size). Add in history so that teams get a bonus pot of x * [(consecutive years entered) / (total years on grid of all teams)].

A few bits of clever maths would allow the current status quo to be _relatively_ unchanged - Ferrari, McL, RB still get a lot more than others. To keep it, they have to keep going, and win more. Everyone else gets to know that the minimum costs (that they have little-no control over) are covered, as long as they sell the space on the car.

If Lotus want to spend 2x what they earn, they'll fold (deservedly so), but teams can either be good commercially and gain, or win and grow organically.
There is NO way any form of budget cap can ever work (just look at Caterham's messy structure - you can't even see who owns what, never mind what they spent). Add in e.g Ferrari buying a fully made win from Maserati for 3 quid and a sprout, or AMG selling Merc an engine for it's mill cost +5% rather than development cost and you'd never be able to police it.

This IMO would be perfect, except for the fact that it can physically never happen. The way the sport is structured means that the teams get to vote for what is best for them, not the grid as a whole. Since by definition what is best for a team is the downfall of their rivals, consensus physically cannot occur. I really hope Bernie's bit fails and the rights go back to the FIA - so we can have a sport again. Sadly again this will never happen, because with 50% of the revenue, CVC et all could fund 1/2 the grid and it's still be profitable enough to keep control.