For all the positive noises being made by Liberty Media about the future of Formula One, the company that owns the sport has been positively reticent on one of the most important issues they must address. Behind the spectacle, the sound and fury of a thus far largely successful reboot, F1 is still generating huge amounts of money and as it prepares to begin the European season in Barcelona this weekend, the disparity in how it is distributed is again under public scrutiny.
On track, the heightened competition at the front of the grid between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes and Ferrari has been enthralling. But where they are at least on a par in performance terms, how the teams are rewarded across the grid could not demonstrate a wider divergence. There is finance aplenty in F1 and any hope of moving on from the current structure of the big three effectively racing in a different class to the rest is dependent on finding a way to better apportion it.
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