Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff has warned Formula 1 owners Liberty Media they face a tough fight to overhaul the current financial structure.
Alongside a budget cap, which appears to be largely agreed on, the sport’s new chiefs want to change the current revenue structure to spread the payments more evenly across all 10 teams.
Mercedes, however, are among five teams that receive additional bonus payments from the commercial rights holder getting what is called a “latching bonus” which was negotiated in 2013 but came into effect after they secured a second consecutive Constructors’ Championship in 2015.
Now Liberty wants to take those benefits away or at least renegotiate in an effort to close the inequality gap but Wolff insists it will not be easy.
“When Mercedes decided to join F1 we were not competitive and we didn’t have any privileges,” he said to RaceFans.
“We really dug ourselves out of a big hole knowing that, if we were to be successful, we would have the right to more privileges and be taken seriously.
“This was an uphill battle that lasted many years with a lot of struggle, a lot of responsibility that we took and investment from Daimler to achieve that status. For sure we will not be a walkover in letting go [of] what we have achieved over the last years.
“Today, we are proud to be an important stakeholder of the sport but it is also clear that everybody is going to defend his own objectives.”
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Talks have been taking place in recent weeks, including at the Brazilian Grand Prix and despite his words, Wolff did have a fairly positive update.
“We’ve been having good discussions, open discussions and transparent discussions which is a new style in F1,” he said. “And it’s not clear everybody is embracing that with all the right values.
“But at least we’re sitting down and talking and this is good progress. We’re having a meeting with Chase also where he is being transparent, Ross [Brawn] was there. I think it’s very good that we have a little bit of a momentum in the discussions.”