The elite level of motorsport is one of the richest sports in the world, generating an estimated $1.7 billion in 2013. But the 11 race teams only saw half of that cash and, for two of them, greasing the wheels of F1 has proved very costly indeed. Caterham and Marussia, who joined the ranks of F1 in 2010, slid into administration before last Sunday's U.S. Grand Prix. F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone warned if the sport's cash crisis is not resolved as few as 14 cars (or 22) could race in 2015...

...It is estimated that just $900 million of last season's total $1.7 billion revenue was distributed among the 11 teams, while the rest was shared among the sport's various commercial rights holders through the Delta Topco umbrella group -- the owners of F1.

But that division of the profits is not the only thorny problem. The money that is shared out among the teams is done so according to where they finished in previous championships.

And the gap gets bigger between the haves and have-nots of the sport as additional bonuses are paid out to Ferrari -- the sport's longest-standing team -- and other historically successful marques such as McLaren, Williams and Red Bull.

"The distribution model of revenues is completely wrong," argued Gerard Lopez, team principal of Lotus, which struggled to find the cash to pay its former star driver Kimi Raikkonen last season.

"The ones that have more, get more and as a result want more and want to spend more and so on, and the ones that have less, get less. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"When you've got teams that get $160-170 million just for showing up something is entirely wrong."

Another ruling from the FIA has put even more pressure on the purse strings of the independent race teams this season -- the introduction of new engine technology.

While Mercedes and Ferrari produce their own engines and Red Bull has a long-term relationship with Renault, the smaller teams had to pay the trio of engine manufacturers to supply the new, hybrid turbo technology.

Lotus boss Lopez estimated the cost of the new engine package at $50-60 million before adding: "That minimum budget killed two teams.