Brawn GP - Ecclestone 'Brawn GP won't get prize money'
The Independant yesterday ran a story talking to Bernie Ecclestone about a number of concerns in F1. The relevant Brawn GP story was about prize money, when Honda was renamed Brawn GP the team became a new entry.
I quote The Independant 'The Concorde Agreement, the contract committing the teams to race in F1, says prize money earned by outfits which have left the sport should be split between those remaining in the sport. However, the contract is not in force and although the teams initially agreed to give the money to Brawn, there are now objections to this given Brawn's success.'
This may well be true but is not the correct way to look at the argument, Honda did leave F1 so Honda should recieve no money and the monies split amongst the remaining teams. However when Brawn GP became a new team this meant they could not win any prize money, teams in their first year of F1 do not recieve prize money. Bernie went on to say that 'the money will not be paid to Brawn and he adds it will not be paid out at all if there is not unanimous agreement on who should receive it.'
Further to that Bernie threw a shot at BGP 'It would have been better for the team to have retained their former name. "I opposed the name Brawn," he says, claiming it is "not a good name, doesn't mean anything to the public, better being Honda than Brawn".
I wonder how Honda would have felt about a team using their name that they would no longer have input in and Mercedes power. Bernie's comments sometimes bemuse me.