Massa opposed to driver wage cuts
2008 championship runner-up Felipe Massa has dismissed suggestions that F1 teams’ drive to cut costs should involve reducing driver salaries.
Team chiefs, including Massa’s Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali, have indicated that discussions to modify existing driver contracts could take place.
But 27-year-old Brazilian Massa, whose strong form in 2008 would ordinarily add to his market value, told reporters before Christmas that he is “not inclined” to Domenicali’s plans.
“In a competitive sport like this, the driver plays a fundamental part, and the cost of the drivers are small compared to the total budget,” he said during a press conference in Brazil.
Massa is believed to earn about $11m, which is dwarfed by the at least $30m earned by his team mate, the 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen, who finished this year’s championship in third place.
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Read more: Should F1 drivers take pay cuts?
Dear Massa, Its only matter of convincing Mosley that drivers pay cut is way forward to reduce costs and consider it done.
And when it comes to cuts who knows things better than Max
To be honest its engines they need to cut back on. 50% of the budget is spent in this area. Across the whole of f1, drivers salary’s are pretty insignificant.
Kimi is reported to be the highest paid at $40m, Felipe $11. With Gene and Badoer’s wages Ferrari’s outgoings on drivers are probably around $55m. So for the bigger teams I’d say yes, there are substantial savings that could be made.
Drivers need to stop being greedy and realise that race results are a measure of a driver’s value, not the size of his retainer.
pete
Thats not a valid argument. You have to take F1 as a whole not single out Kimi or i can single out drivers who get paid nothing. Anyway 50mill is still relatively small beer on a budget of 400 mill.
If you have a personal problem with their salarys then thats fine but dont confuse that with the facts. Salarys are about 5% of budget across F1 as a whole.
I respectfully disagree!
I don’t have a personal problem with the driver’s salaries at all. But when F1 itself is striving to ensure its survival and cutting back on costs that do have a large impact on the sport (bans on tyre warmers, engine development etc) then money should certainly be saved on things that in reality make no difference. Granted the savings to be made at the back of the grid are smaller, but there are savings to be made.
It just makes no sense to me when di Montezemolo complains KERS development is too expensive while Ferrari spend a similar figure on two drivers.
Not really! Teams are aiming for an eventually annual running cost of about $50 in total so you can hardly say its small beer.
I thought the idea was to cut the budgets in half over a few years. If they keep driver salaries steady then it would be 50 million on a 200 million budget. That’s 25%. It doesn’t make sense to have the salaries fixed while the budget is decreased that much.
Ok, that should say ‘$50m in total’. An annual budget of $50 is perhaps a little ambitious…
Pete. But the budgets are not currently 50 mill across the board and in the few teams that do have that budget the drivers are on commensurately less money. I dont follow your logic. Yes it would save money if Kimi get 3mill rather than 30mill, thats so obvious it doesnt need explanation BUT the issue shouldnt be higher up the agenda than areas like the engine that consume hundreds of million per season.
I also think drivers like Kimi and Lewis bring huge value to their teams. I once read a story about a retainer the basketball player Jordan got from Nike. It was 20 mill a year. When Nike broke down what they earned from having him it was almost theft on Nikes part. They sold something like 400mill of trainers with Jordans name on them every year.
Drivers with the right image are a goldmine for sponsors and whatever retainer they are on is earned in full.
Personally i think the fundamentals of F1 may need to change. Id hate to see a standard car but to be honest we are there almost anyway. The cars are virtual copies of each other and the rulebook gives designers almost no scope for ingenuity. Paint a ferrari silver and it could be a Mclaren