Haas team boss Guenther Steiner has revealed that the American-owned outfit has refused to sign a deal which will see Racing Point Force India retain its right to prize money.
Last week at the Belgian Grand Prix it was confirmed that all nine rival teams had signed a document allowing Force India the right to 'Column 1' prize money – this is a roughly $25m (£19.2m) annual payment made to teams which have finished inside the top ten in two consecutive seasons.
However as Racing Point Force India entered the Belgian GP as a new entrant, it would miss out on these payments until 2020 at the earliest, costing the team upwards of $50m (£38.4m). Liberty Media hoped to avoid this by having all nine teams agree a deal which would see the new entrant's financial deal continue under the previous entry.
"The remaining nine teams have signed, so to speak, a document that enables us to keep the money that Sahara Force India had earned in years past," commented team boss Otmar Szafnauer.
Yet this weekend, Steiner admitted Haas have refused to sign up to the deal until it receives further clarification from Liberty Media as to why Force India should receive special treatment.
"What we need to understand is with the new licence, why there is a reason not to be treated [like a team] with a new licence. That is what we want to understand and we cannot explain that to ourselves someone needs to explain it to us and that hasn’t happened yet.
When asked to confirm that Haas hadn't agreed to the deal, Steiner replied: "No. With the new licence we didn’t sign up for that. We still need to understand why it should be different."
It's believed Haas are the only team which has refused to sign, although Williams were also against the deal before eventually being convinced to agree.
