• Formula One eager to avoid possible boycott by teams • Force India, Sauber and Lotus hoping for more support • Marussia follow Caterham into administration

CVC Capital Partners, the majority shareholders in Formula One, look ready to pay out an extra £100m to help the struggling smaller teams in the sport.

Force India, Sauber and Lotus were reportedly prepared to boycott Sunday’s United States Grand Prix because of their financial frustrations following the recent problems at Caterham and Marussia, who have both gone into administration in the past fortnight – though Marussia are still hoping to run in Abu Dhabi after missing the US and the upcoming race in Brazil.

The smaller teams are worried about spiralling costs and falling sponsorship revenue against a background of declining TV and live audience figures.

It all came to a head in Texas when the three teams made their stand, while the sport’s chief executive, Bernie Ecclestone, admitted there was a problem but added: “I don’t know how to fix it.”

But the Lotus owner, Gérard Lopez, said on Monday: “I know CVC and Bernie have been looking at this. It’s going to be a base payment [over and above the money paid for positions in the championship] given to the smaller teams, which is essentially going to make it possible for a normal budget to work.

“To be honest, it’s really not a complicated thing to do. It just requires a bit of goodwill. The overall amount we’re discussing, once you start dividing it by the number of teams, is not that massive.

“There is a way to build a proposal in the next couple of days. I really think there is a way to solve this in the coming days, probably even to get to a proposal before Brazil [next Sunday]. In which case I don’t see the point in doing anything drastic that would damage the sport.”

But Lopez admits the bigger teams will have to agree to the plan. “If it requires everybody to participate, it will require agreement on that,” he said. “Even the people who have a strong opinion on the subject are not stupid, and they know a bit of an effort is going to help everyone, including themselves.”

Sauber’s team principal, Monisha Kaltenborn, said: “Nobody is asking for anything unreasonable here. We have to recognise times have changed, the level to enter Formula One has changed.

“There was a reason for the system earlier, now things have really changed, so one has to rethink that. We have all put in too much investment into this. You can’t just let it fizzle out.”