61 replies to this topic

[Atreiu]

Bump. Always fun to try to make sense of these amazing numbers.

 

http://highest-paid-athletes.silk.co/

 

Hamilton is the highest paid racer, with 32 mil between endorsements and salary. Which is a lot, but waaaaayyyyy behind Floyd Mayweather. Oddly, I know people who watch lots of sports, except boxing. The subject never even pops up in conversations with my pals. So I must be in some minority.

 

Anyhow, they have LH at 32, FA at 31, then Earnhardt Jr and JJ before Vettel at 19. I guess next year he'll be higher on the list.

 

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There are a lot of sportists that earn much more than LH, not to mention the average F1 pilot, so I guess limiting earnings isn't a real issue or problem.

Edited by Atreiu, 02 December 2014 - 19:55.

[Massa]

At the moment teams are comletely free in how and what they pay their drivers. With every now and then some mind-blowing deals being signed. The latest: Alonso will apparently be signed by McLaren for an astromical number. On the other side you have (young) drivers that (compared to that) almost drive for free, also in top teams (Magnussen reportedly 'only' earns 500k) and drivers like Button realising how privileged they are and saying "I don't care about the big money, I do want to get paid cause I bring value, but I'm not here to fill my bank account with ridiculous amounts".

I'm strongly in favour of certain rules and limits on drivers salary. For example drivers only being allowed to be paid a base salary of up to 5mil/year with the rest of their salary being performance related. Preferably, these performance clauses have to be exactly the same for teammates and subjected to a maximum.
This because experienced drivers (should) of course bring a certain amount of knowledge and value with them compared to the young drivers. This value can then be reflected in their base salary. However, their performance is the thing really brings in the money for the teams. And I can't find a justification for one driver being paid 30mil and the other 1mil in one team, regardless of their (relative) performance.

For how these performance pays should work are several options, and could simply be left to the teams themselves to figure out. They could for example simply say "we have 20mil to spend on you guys, so that's 1mil for every race which will be divided between the two of you based on your finishing position in that race". Or they could make it a little bit more complicated looking at the total performance: if one guy has an easy ride to 4th while the other faces technical problems and 12th was the absolute maximum achievable for him, they both get both get 500k because they both delivered the maximum result they could. Or you made a stupid mistake which cost us valuable points, so 0 for you and your race wasn't that great either but at least you brought home some points, so here's 200k.

I believe Red Bull already works with a relatively low base salary which can become a really nice sum with race wins etc.

 

 

Because there is no justification to give, teams are free. It's the team who give the salary they want to give. There is no " right " salary or wrong salary. If Ferrari wants to give 1 billion per day at Chilton they can, and if they choose to do that it's because they thinks Chilton will give them much more money.

[Jackmancer]

I don't understand this discussion. Hamilton is worth $32 million, while Ericsson obviously is worth way less. It's a hugely exponential growth between talent and worth, accelerated by marketing value. Hamilton alone might sell $32 million worth of cars for Mercedes, who is the OP to say he should be paid a meagre $5 million when he's obviously worth more than that?

[Rybo]

No, and furthermore if some sort of spending cap is ever implemented, salaries of driver and other team personnel should be exempt.

If a spending cap is placed. Every aspect of the finances should be controlled especially personnel. The last thing people would want would be a team that hides its budget in a loophole that gives them an advantage.

To be fair this is really just trying to bandage the side effects, when we need to cure the symptoms. Give teams a better share of the revenues and F1 can be sustainable. All this talk of budget cuts and spending limits are ridiculous.

[AustinF1]

I'm strongly in favour of certain rules and limits on drivers salary. 

Of all the absolutely ridiculous, mind-numbingly stupid things I've ever seen posted on the internet, this one just might take the cake.

 

Wow. :stunnedbythestupidity:

[slideways]

You've got it the wrong way around bud, I think the question should be

 

Should there be a limit to how much drivers PAY teams for a seat?

It should be banned outright. I risk sounding like Bernie but F1 does not need teams scraping the bottom of the barrel. I would much prefer the top GP2 or Indy teams stepping up with well polished outfits and customer cars than the like of Caterham/Marussia. Or even the modern Sauber, may the F1 gods forgive me.

 

Of all the absolutely ridiculous, mind-numbingly stupid things I've ever seen posted on the internet, this one just might take the cake.

 

Wow. :stunnedbythestupidity:

You would love reddit. 

[Brazzers]

u mad bro?

 

[ronsingapore]

I don't think there should be any caps at all on how much drivers are paid and such, that is entirely between them and the teams but drivers should be paid what they are worth (and not be pay drivers). what i am strongly in favour of is that drivers should be paid according to their performance as drivers. That is the problem with F1: even a average driver in a great car will outrace and outrun an outstanding driver in a bad car. Drivers should only be allowed to proceed to F1 only if they have passed certain entry requirements or pre-requisites, i.e must be one of the top 3 champions of GP2/Formula Renault/any one of the other numerous racing series, etc. 

 

But then again, some of the best drivers in the world of racing are pay drivers, like Nikki Lauda. Just to start in go-karting can be a drain on a middle-class family.There isn't really any grassroots development if you are not in the upper-class.

[aramos]

No. We only have 20 drivers in the sport unlike football or any other sport that has hundreds of different players if not thousands when you add up all the team. The drivers earn their keep. There are plenty of great drivers who are starting their careers out willing to drive for very little cash (in F1 terms anyway) but if you want the absolute best, when every point matters you have to pay the big dollars. There are plenty of drivers that will score 75% of a top driver over a season that you can sign for 10% of the price, but everything in F1 is arguing over tiny fractions, so if you want a driver that can deliver those last few tenths per lap you pay for it, just like you do for any performance gains from the car.

 

To me if anything the driver market feels a lot more locked down lately. Teams no longer really hunt for the 'established' drivers and they promote from their own junior programs. We saw this in recent years with drivers like Ricciardo, Kvyat and Magnussen. There were plenty of established and willing drivers with far more proven records yet those three got the nod. I have to wonder if due to simple laws of supply and demand that driver salaries will eventually get forced down as seats become scarce and great drivers plentiful.  For a team like McLaren and Ferrari a driver like Alonso, Vettel or Hamilton may be worth 20 million a year simply because they're a cheap way to find 10-15 seconds over race distance. I do wonder had Williams run a driver lineup consisting of a champion this year if they'd have race wins. 

Edited by aramos, 03 December 2014 - 07:23.

[anbeck]

I just hope they pay taxes to the full amount in the EU (all teams are based in EU locations, aren't they?), then at least I would get to see some of that money (better schools and stuff)!

 

But something tells me, they don't.... not that I want to say they are illegally evading taxes, but if you earn 30 millions, I'm pretty sure most of it goes on accounts on the Cayman Islands or something... (at least Switzerland or Luxemburg).

[F1matt]

Don't believe everything you read in the press, most sports people's salaries reported in the press are miles out, especially the ones our company deal with, the Alonso deal sounds suspicious as most deals are market driven and Mclaren know Alonso has no other option so they will dictate negotiations, not the other way round, Mclaren have a history of not paying their drivers that much, they prefer their sponsors to pay the drivers direct.

[kraduk]

I don't think there should be any caps at all on how much drivers are paid and such, that is entirely between them and the teams but drivers should be paid what they are worth (and not be pay drivers). what i am strongly in favour of is that drivers should be paid according to their performance as drivers. That is the problem with F1: even a average driver in a great car will outrace and outrun an outstanding driver in a bad car. Drivers should only be allowed to proceed to F1 only if they have passed certain entry requirements or pre-requisites, i.e must be one of the top 3 champions of GP2/Formula Renault/any one of the other numerous racing series, etc. 

 

But then again, some of the best drivers in the world of racing are pay drivers, like Nikki Lauda. Just to start in go-karting can be a drain on a middle-class family.There isn't really any grassroots development if you are not in the upper-class.

 

 

class and wealth are not the same thing