'Never a better time than now for an F1 team to make money' - Haas boss Steiner

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'Never a better time than now for an F1 team to make money' - Haas boss Steiner

Teams have been predicted to make billions in a few years' time

Ian Parkes

Friday 29 October 2021 13:53 Updated: 11:41

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believes there has "never been a better time than now" for an F1 team to make money.

Throughout F1's history, the sport is littered with teams forced out of business as they were unable to keep pace with the spend-spend-spend culture in order to compete.

That model has disappeared as F1 is finally regulated by a budget cap while it has soared in popularity as new media markets have opened up under Liberty Media's control that former supremo Bernie Ecclestone chose to neglect.

With F1 burgeoning, it recently prompted Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff to claim every team was on the verge of becoming profit-making.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown even went one step further by suggesting teams "can definitely be worth billions in five years".

Addressing the remarks, Steiner said: "In the history [of F1] which I know, in which I have been involved in racing, I think this is the best time.

"I would agree with Toto that if you do a good job here, the aim of our business should be to make a profit, that is why you do business.

"I think there was never a better time than now to do this and also there is never a higher value than now for a team. I see it positively."

Liberty Media has certainly made an impression following their arrival which, at first, was frowned upon given the hold Ecclestone had over the sport.

But under Chase Carey, and now former Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali, the sport has been transformed.

"I would say that Liberty Media since they took over, has really pushed the business aspect hard," added Steiner.

"They know a profitable business is here to stay, because a business which is losing money after a while, I always say, you run out of money or you run out of passion, one of the two, so then you stop.

"You then get into [the other] teams not being worth a lot of money but I think it’s a very good time at the moment for all the teams."