No $10m start-up bonus for Haas in the first year

Haas will not get the $10 million start-up bonus that was paid to F1's most recent team newcomers. To entice the three new teams - known originally as Virgin, Team Lotus and Hispania - onto the grid for 2010, the bonus was paid by Bernie Ecclestone because teams only get official income based on performance from the previous year. "There's no money in the first year," the F1 supremo told F1 business journalist Christian Sylt in London.

But even the $10 million will now not be offered to Haas. "It's not the end of the world for Haas," Ecclestone is quoted by Forbes. "When they come into formula one they know. They asked to come in. Nobody asked them."

And he warned that team owner Gene Haas, a billionaire American thanks to his machine tool company Haas Automation, will have to spend a lot of money on F1 in the future. "If somebody wants to be competitive they come in and over four years they have to spend $1 billion as Red Bull did," said Ecclestone. "So we will have to wait and see." (GMM)