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F1 Australian GP: Wolff urges F1 teams not to dismiss Liberty share proposal

Toto Wolff says Liberty Media's suggestion to teams that they should buy stakes in F1 shouldn't be so readily dismissed after initial proposals were flatly rejected.

The American media giant has now completed its full purchase of F1 from CVC - a process that began in September -, with Chase Carey last month announced as replacing Bernie Ecclestone as CEO of the rebranded Formula One Group.

The arrival of Liberty Media is expected to herald a shake-up across the board, including race weekend formats, events and distribution, but there are also plans to revise the structure of prize money distribution, float a budget cap and allow teams a stake.

Though the first suggestion of buying $400 million of shares was rejected by teams, Mercedes F1 boss says more thought should be taken by those against the idea.

"This is an idea which one shouldn't dismiss easily," Wolff told Austrian magazine Trend. "But in any case one must know more about the business case and our role in the whole (project). Talks about this have only just begun and will probably last over the coming months.

Smaller teams like Sauber and Force India are expected to remain against the plans due to the smaller budgets relative to bigger Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull outfits.

Zdroj: crash.net