Ecclestone wants to scrap team bonuses

Formula One’s biggest teams could lose millions in bonus payments after Bernie Ecclestone revealed he plans to overhaul the prize money structure.

At present the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes, as well as Red Bull, far outstrip their rival teams in terms of bonus payments.

The payments have been questioned by the sport’s smaller teams who feel they are being unjustly disadvantaged.

According to a report in Autosport magazine Ferrari will receive £143 million this season while backmarkers Manor will claim only £35m of the prize money.

This, though, could change in the future after F1 supremo Ecclestone revealed Formula One could move to a “Premier League” style payments system.

“I told Toto [Wolff, the Mercedes motorsport boss] not to think about banking any money yet,” the 85-year-old told The Times.

“I am going to have a good look at how things work to see if I can come up with something more equal for all the teams.

“The Premier League has a good way of distributing the prize money, so maybe that could work for us.

“There will be people who will like it and people who won’t like it, and people who will suffer.”

Any changes though won’t come into effect until 2020 when all parties enter a new Concorde Agreement.