Gene Haas: Liberty have been lucky

Gene Haas has suggested that F1 owners Liberty Media are very fortunate that some of the current teams haven't gone into administration.

Haas runs a successful NASCAR team and has used the motorsport as an example of teams being lost in the sport in recent times.

"That (NASCAR) is the bad side of racing... you see people who have spent fortunes in racing and walk away with nothing," Haas told Motorsport. "It's pretty common, so you have to be doing it for the love of the sport.

"But we're starting to see how racing teams in all venues are looking. The promoters expect to make money in business, the race tracks all expect to make money as a business and they make money at it, it's almost like the team owners should never make money.

"That business model, how it got that way, we don't know," Haas added. "In NASCAR, the owners are saying 'everyone else seems to make money, why shouldn't we make money'. I think that is changing, because in NASCAR a lot of the teams are disappearing.

"Force India was almost on the way out," Haas referred back to Force India's lucky escape in the summer - with the side going into administration before Lawrence Stroll and his consortium bought the team.

"If it wasn't for Lawrence Stroll stepping in and saving them or Sauber, those teams would have been gone. The fact that they were saved, saved Liberty Media from having to scramble. If a few of those teams were to drop out it probably would force the issue of how do we fund teams?"