Driver Salary Caps

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Ruslan
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Driver Salary Caps

#1

Post by Ruslan »

While, I have been a big supporter of budget caps, and think they also need to be placed on engines, I am on the fence on the new driver salary caps they are discussing. As I understand it they are looking at putting in a cap of $30 million for the two drivers plus reserves.

Now, a (the) major reason I support budget caps is to bring the teams and the racing closer. A salary cap on drivers may actually do the reverse. To have one really good driver, you will then be forced to hire a back-up affordable journeyman driver for the other seat. You have therefore almost institutionalized as 1-2 relationship between the drivers in any team with one expensive driver. It also means you will never end up with two top drivers in the same team (like Prost and Senna).

Now, I suspect the primary reason F1 wants this is to control their own costs. There is some argument for this, but I don't think it does a lot to improve the racing.

On a final note, about the only time F1 ends up in the news in the United States is when they put out lists of the highest paid athletes in the world, which is invariably topped by a half-dozen basketball players and some guy in F1 that no one has ever heard of. So, I would argue there is some marketing value to having a highly paid driver or two.
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#2

Post by White six »

Toto Wolff likes this
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#3

Post by jimclark »

The ultimate form of racing is over. :(
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#4

Post by erwin greven »

Good.
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#5

Post by Circuitmaster »

If they want to cap it (which I'm not sure they should.. never will drivers fancy a breakaway series more than when their pay gets capped), they should do it per head, not per team.
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#6

Post by Aty »

The act, like many other recent changes, doesn't make sense to me at all. We are operating in a technology sector, not some hockey society full of teams with handful of sticks employing MBA cooks who are trying to make living from science they call capology. I cannot imagine that in business MB would tell its competition like BMW and VW how much they should pay its workers. This is what Liberty and FiA are effectively doing (or attempting to do). This thirst for controlling people and organisations is like effects known after an individual injects a dose of opium. Once you are on the roll, you don't know when to stop. Restrictions, more restrictions, handicaps, budgets, cuts...
I rather suspect it's not end with their drive for salary cap. Expect from Brawn/Todt more orders and restrictions whether they are needed or not. To think of it, I used to like both gentlemen. After several years of observation their governance, I find hard to stay polite.

Remedy..? New series without FiA, and without Brawn&Co. I am sure it could work, and I could stop controling my blood pressure with medicaments. Interestingly enough, after a few years of hesitation, my position has developed into opposition of electric vehicles. New series with hydrogen power plant seems to be a better (more eco friendly) solution.
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#7

Post by erwin greven »

Do you follow WEC and IMSA? What happened to LMP1 and to lesser extent DPi? What is now happening to GTLM? And probably will happen to GTE? Bleeding to death because of the costs.
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#8

Post by Aty »

GP initially was never series for people with empty pockets. These are manufacturers, that's how it started, and they have their own economic departments which develop suitable internal racing budgets. Global markets and suitable technical specifications are best organic regulators how and where teams spend. Stop building a space shuttle and it will cost less, to put it crudely.

Stop insisting on being a member of a club if you don't have cash to support your ambitions. Go and tell some posh golf clubs to lower fees, just because it is expensive for you...

The case can be reasoned what GP was, where it could go, and what it has became after financial sector found their golden goose. GP in the past was full of glitz, noise and uniqueness, rather than garden variety show with "things" running in circles. I am not sure what the product is or will be, and how it will differentiate from other series (which F1 snobs trying to denigrate as "lesser" ones).
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#9

Post by erwin greven »

Without caps i don't see F1 continuing for another 10 years.
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#10

Post by Aty »

I think we agree there is something wrong, however we might disagree on remedy. You are focusing on capping cost, I am in favour of different (simpler) technical specs as self-correcting economic mechanism.

There is an advice attributed to Einstein, who supposedly said, “everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” F1 went too far in both directions IMO. Danger of chocking it to death will not be corrected but rules that govern F1 today. Common sense has to be revived before its too late.

A few thoughts on cars and series (make it happen):

- make cars less costly (via technical specs)
- permitting unrestricted (or intelligently managed) creativity luring in and surprising fans
- making series viable and attractive to other car manufacturers
- at some point series has to be sold and become sport again, rather than just golden goose for daily egg collection
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#11

Post by jimclark »

erwin greven wrote: 3 years agoWithout caps i don't see F1 continuing for another 10 years.
And with "cost caps", we don't need to wait ten years. Formula One will not be anymore.

Formula One, the ultimate form of auto racing; the greatset minds, creating, racing, and driving the quickest* racing vehicles on the planet.

We will be watching just another show, not a proving ground of the very best..... :sorrow:

(* I chose "quickest" intentionally)
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#12

Post by Aty »

From broader perspective, Domenicali is not on board with the idea capping driver's team related income. Dome is a sensible man and perhaps see further and more clearly, than some of his colleagues.
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#13

Post by PTRACER »

I am really not bothered how much they earn. £1 million a year or £100 million, it seems a lot to me. Surely the idea was to keep costs down so that smaller teams can keep up with bigger teams?
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#14

Post by Ruslan »

Well, the small teams don’t hire the $30 million a year drivers and they don’t drive for them. So a driver salary cap won’t do a thing to help the small teams. It will potentially reduce the budget of the big teams, although I think it guarantees that they will all go with an expensive #1 and a cheaper #2. I don’t this is something that you want to codify in your regulations.
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#15

Post by PTRACER »

I wonder how many of the drivers are actually being paid by the teams and how many are being paid by personal sponsors.

I wouldn't be surprised if only half of the drivers were making a profit and the other half were paying to be there.
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