Red Bull sees no choice but to accept Formula 1 entry fee hike

As AUTOSPORT originally revealed, the FIA has pushed through an overhaul of the entry fee system for 2013 - which will result in a championship-winning team like Red Bull facing a cost of more than $4 million USD to compete.

Red Bull team principal told AUTOSPORT that the move was a surprise at a time when there are efforts to keep costs under control - but he was understanding of why the FIA had done it.

"It is a difficult situation," said Horner. "Jean [Todt, FIA president] has explained very clearly why there has to be an increase in fees.

"With the scheme they have introduced, it penalises the higher scoring teams more, but we can understand some of his reasoning behind that - so we accept the FIA's position."

When asked if he was frustrated that the move comes at a time when there is big debate in F1 about keeping costs for the teams down, Horner said: "It is not entirely consistent with the concept of cost-saving..."

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn believes that the rise in fees would only really penalise the most competitive teams because of the way that others costs that are currently paid separately, for items such as weather forecasting, are being wrapped up into the basic $500,000 fee.

"I think for us we would be delighted to pay it because it would mean we would be scoring a lot of points!" he said. "If you are a mid range team then you have to consider the fact that all the extra facilities that we have paid for separately are rolled into the entry fee.

"For a lot of teams it is going to be very similar. It will make a more substantial difference for those teams that finish in the top three or four of the championship. I was being flippant earlier, but I hope we can have that problem next year."