Liberty set to offer teams advance on payments after revenue drop

Liberty Media is set to offer Formula 1 teams an advance on payments in order to make up for a recent revenue shortfall, according to Red Bull chief Christian Horner.

Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix marks the last race of Liberty's first full season running F1, having completed its $8.8 billion takeover in January.

Investment from Liberty in areas such as infrastructure and marketing has resulted in a drop of revenue that was confirmed to investors earlier this month, leading to reduce pay-out to teams as a result.

The news marks a shift compared to F1's previous approach when led by Bernie Ecclestone, who prioritised profits and revenue, resulting in comparisons of the sport's management between now under new CEO and chairman Chase Carey and that of 12 months ago.

Speaking in Friday's FIA press conference, Red Bull team boss Horner said Liberty's new approach needed to be given time before it would start to bear fruit, as well as revealing the prize money shortfall would be made up by an advance on payments for any smaller teams reliant on the funding.

"Inevitably as they’ve invested in an infrastructure their costs have gone up. The model that they have, compared to the previous management, obviously is significant different," Horner said.

"But perhaps, in the world that we live in, it’s appropriate for where the commercial rights holder wants to take the sport. So it’s inevitable that they’ve got to invest.

"At the same time revenues are slightly affected by Malaysia not renewing, etc., but I think the rights holder made a very generous offer to those teams that want to take it to effectively advance monies to ensure that the money next year available to the teams is the same as this year and the latest forecast, on an interest-free basis.

"They’ve offered to basically fund that bridge for those teams that wish to take it. So, and of course, when you’re building a structure, you’ve got to invest in that. Obviously, they’ve moved premises, they’ve moved offices, they’re running a different ship to how Bernie operated it.

"Bernie was the salesman, he was a one-man show, which was always going to be unsustainable because there was no individual that could single-handedly replace him.

"I think with the structure that’s been put into place, hopefully dividends and benefit will come – but it’s going to be a little bit further down the road.

"Probably we’re looking at 2019, 2020 and particularly 2021 before we’re going to see the fruits of their investment."