Force India’s rivals allow them to keep prize money

Force India’s rivals allow them to keep Column 1 prize money, but they’ll still have to start the season from zero points.

The Force India saga has finally come to an end after weeks of uncertainty over the team’s future.

The legal aspects of the deal encapsulated a lot of interaction between Force India and its rivals, as the FIA and Liberty Media wanted the rivals to sign off a document saying that they had no issues in Force India keeping its points and the ‘Column 1’ earnings from the first half of the season.

There were reports earlier suggesting that the rivals had refused to sign any such document. Speculation suggested that the rivals were wary of Force India transforming into a Mercedes B team.

The final decision that was taken last night was that Force India would resume its participation in the F1 under a new name ‘Racing Point Force India’, but it would have to do so with zero points.

Good news: we’ll be on the grid in Spa and in every other round of the season (and beyond!), ready to fight.

Bad news: zero points.

And so is… pic.twitter.com/sTFK3O8V2s

— Racing Point Force India F1 (@ForceIndiaF1) August 23, 2018

However, no clarity was provided with respect to the prize money distribution, only that the team would be eligible for the prize money that it would be able to secure through the points it garners in the second half of the season.

But, a report in Racefans today suggests that rival teams have agreed to let Racing Point Force India inherit the ‘Column 1’ earnings from its predecessor.

However, they’ll have to resume their season from zero points only.

This seems like a good move on part of the rivals, as letting Racing Point Force India keep the Column 1 earnings, would help their new investors and owners run the team a bit better and they wouldn’t be too caught up in searching for and pumping in more money.