I’m not saying there’s no incentive to perform well, I’m saying that’s it’s not too big an issue to come in last. At least financially speaking.

A quick search shows Haas made $60 million in prize money last year, while Sauber (AR) made $69 million. How much more does a team need to invest to climb up a place? If it’s more than $9 million, it’s not necessarily worth it for the lower teams.

So for the shareholders it becomes a question of whether investing is worth it. If the team is already making a profit under the cost cap, and the value of the team increases because supply is limited and the likes of Audi and Ford want to enter — is it really worth investing more?

But all of that is beside the point, because for the shareholders there’s one thing they surely don’t want: an extra competitor. All of a sudden you could come in 11th, decreasing the prize money you get for just showing up. And when you decide to sell the team, it’s worth less because the supply has increased.

We’ve wound up in a situation where the teams can decide against whom they want to compete. And commercial interests directly clash with fair, open competition. The email to spam is a bullshit story — if the FOM had wanted to make it work, they could’ve picked up the phone. It’s not like megadeals like this depend on one specific calendar invite.