Sahara Force India requests an advance of funds from Bernie Ecclestone
Sahara Force India continues to face cash flow difficulties, which has led them to request an earlier payment from Bernie Ecclestone than originally scheduled. All the other teams will need to agree for this to happen.
Last winter, Sahara Force India’s development program was not ideal, with numerous delays. That’s why the team brought a major evolution of its 2015 car to Silverstone since its early season was mostly just a 2014 car adapted to the new year’s technical regulations. At the time, Bob Fernley, its director, stated that his team had fallen behind due to the bankruptcy of Caterham and Marussia, which had impacted their common suppliers.
One year later, the team leaders do not wish to find themselves in the same situation and therefore intend to have a much earlier development program, as Bob Fernley explains to Autosport: We start losing payments as soon as the season ends. So we are trying to rebalance things a bit, to have better cash flow because winter is the worst period for us from a cash flow perspective.
Indeed, the payment structure planned by the FOM is that the installments are spread from February to November. However, it is precisely during the two months without payment that teams have to face a significant increase in bills to pay to their suppliers since it is then that the parts of the new car reach the stage of physical production: « It’s not just for us. It’s also to make our suppliers’ lives a bit easier. They are under a lot of pressure and can be pushed too far, especially if other teams are also struggling. »
According to Joe Saward’s information, this advance would amount to 10 million dollars. Bernie Ecclestone has therefore sent a letter to all the teams to obtain their agreement regarding such a request. But other teams might be tempted to make the request: « It all depends on whether other teams feel the need to do the same thing. In that case, the process would be a bit longer. It can be a collective agreement, not for everyone, but for the few teams that were involved last year. »
For the leader, the fact that Bernie Ecclestone agreed to send his letter is already a sign that he is in favor, which strengthens his hopes that it will be obtained.
With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr
