Lotus owner Gerard Lopez is to consider his long-term future in Formula One if drastic changes are not made to resolve the sport’s latest financial crisis.Lopez, along with Force India co-owner Vijay Mallya and Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn, threatened a boycott of the the United States Grand Prix unless the sport’s overlords addressed the soaring costs in F1 that are making it almost impossible for the small teams to compete.
A proposal is set to be presented to the commercial rights holders, private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, asking them for an additional share of the spoils.
F1 makes 1.3billion US dollars in revenue, with 832million of that handed out to the teams last year, of which 499million was given to the big four in Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren.
The three small teams are simply asking for another share of the pie to ensure they can remain safely afloat without fear of going under.
Lopez has warned, however, if the status quo is maintained then he will have to review whether or not it is worth continuing.
Asked by Press Association Sport whether the current situation had led to him considering his own future, Lopez replied: “It makes me consider the future of the sport in itself.
“To be honest, if sponsors were to consider overall, then yes, of course. We’re a privately-run team and we do a lot of other things in our lives – successfully.
“I’d like to do this successfully too, but that’s why we intend to stay and work something out that makes sense for everybody.
“But if the sport was blind enough to not think that way, then maybe one day day we would have to reconsider.
“We’re not there yet, but someone like Andrey Cheglakov (Marussia owner) certainly reconsidered his position and look at where they are now.”
Lopez is not talking about an immediate cessation as he holds the futures of a few hundred employees in his hands.
What he wants is for the bigger teams to finally stop focusing solely on themselves and think of the bigger picture and where F1 is heading.
Lopez added: “For sure you’re not going to hear from me that we’re going to stop this year or next year. We’ve a budget and so on and so forth.
“The fact is what’s happening now is not right for the sport, and long term, if things weren’t to change, then you do have to think about whether something makes sense or not.
“For sure, we’re not thinking about that now, but yes, we want the sport to have a thought and to act now.
“Be it the commercial rights holder, or be it the owner of sport, they are seriously ready to think about it.
“But it’s some of the top teams who appear to be the ones who are not, which is crazy because the owners (of F1) seem to be quite interested and thinking about a way forward.”