Former team of Verstappen and Leclerc in trouble: "Shouldn't take half a year"

Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc competed for the Van Amersfoort Racing team in Formula 3 in 2014 and 2015 respectively. That race stable is now also severely affected by the coronavirus. The situation is dire and should not continue for another six months for the Dutch formation.

"The big difference with the Formula 1 teams is that we all have paying drivers", says Frits van Amersfoort in an interview with RTL GP. In the lower junior classes race stables mainly run on an amount of money that drivers pay to the team to be able to take a seat behind the wheel. "But of course I can't let my riders serve their contract if we don't drive, so we're pretty stuck on all sides at the moment".

Van Amersfoort Racing has no income at the moment, but the fixed costs have to be paid. That creates a serious problem. "We have received a number of advance payments and we are now counting on that", says owner Van Amersfoort. "We have 35 permanent employees and we have to continue paying them all. That still works, but for how long is the question. That shouldn't take six months."

Van Amersfoort runs entirely on cash flow

Formula 1 teams like Williams also come under financial pressure, but they can often rely on money from sponsors or moneylenders for some time. "I don't have an overview of the balance of an F1 team, but the problem of a motorsport team of our level is that we run on cash flow", explains the man of the team from Zeewolde. "As long as the customer pays, we can keep things in the air. That means we don't have a lot of fat on our bones. Of course we don't have any variable costs now. We don't have to pay straps now, we don't fly anywhere and have no hotel costs, but the most important thing is that those guys keep paying and we can pay our fixed costs", he concludes.