10 replies to this topic

[stevewf1]

Not sure if I've seen this discussed before.

Do the drivers have to carry their own policies? Does the FIA provide any assistance? Do the teams? How much does it cost? (quite a lot I would imagine). Are the drivers required to carry coverage?

I got to thinking about this after looking at photos of the dreadful accidents that befell Martin Donnelly and Alex Zanardi. I'm sure they had massive medical bills and was wondering who pays for them...

[potmotr]

From what I've read most drivers have insurance policies of different kinds.

You'd imagine the health policies come with quite a high premium, but probably not that much more than other dangerous sports like high speed skiing etc.

And I'd imagine the premiums would be substantially lower than someone who races a motorbike, particularly on something like the Isle of Mann TT.

What I'd be interested to know is whether drivers have policies for future loss of earnings, or whether anyone would in fact insure for that.

Lets take Martin Donnelly as an example. He was in his first full season of Formula One and had just been signed for 1991 when he had his crash. If he'd stuck it out at Lotus in 1992 when they finally delivered a strong car he could have gone on to have a very solid topline career.

The earning potentional would have been huge. Doubt he could have insured for that though.

Most teams won't allow their drivers to undertake anything considered dangerous out of the cockpit. For instance, Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill have talked of the fact their contracts prevented them from racing or testing Moto GP bikes during their active F1 career.

What I'd like to know is whether the teams insure for damage to F1 race cars.

For instance, McLaren will build six or seven chassis for this season.

But if one is written off like Kovalainen's was at the Spanish Grand Prix does the team see any money back?

[Ocelot]

These are the people to speak to (and, yes, I am beholden to them!) :
http://www.thbgroup....put/page139.asp

[Ligier26]

A few years ago I sat next to this guy, John Gorsline, at the Autosport Awards dinner at the Grosvenor in London -

http://www.gorsline....news_050627.htm


He knew many of the drivers there, not just the North American contingent, and he was 'working the room' to make sure he'd had a chat with all of his customers.

[rolf123]

Apparently many Italian drivers in days gone by would not take out such insurance as they believed it was bad luck.

These days, every driver takes out insurance to cover loss of earnings. No idea how much it costs though, I would hazard a guess at several tens of thousands per year.

[skinnylizard]

Originally posted by rolf123
Apparently many Italian drivers in days gone by would not take out such insurance as they believed it was bad luck.

These days, every driver takes out insurance to cover loss of earnings. No idea how much it costs though, I would hazard a guess at several tens of thousands per year.

if not more. i remember MS and his 50,000$ a day when he broke his leg?

[alfa1]

Originally posted by skinnylizard
if not more. i remember MS and his 50,000$ a day when he broke his leg?

Doing a bit of googling on that incident, I found a small article at the Lloyds (big famous insurance company) site that is maybe worth a read...

Safety first as F1 steers clear of price hikes


Elsewhere, I'd found that Lloyds was the company that had insured Schumacher at the time of his broken leg.

[Jack McGhee]

I'd have thought they would get insurance race by race or something, as its international racing. Say if someone had a smash at Silverstone they could just cart him off to A+E and have no bill. But say you did the same thing in the US then you'd need a temporary cover plan for that race.

Wouldn't that work? or am I a bit of a div?

[Jackman]

All drivers (and other track based team employees) have appropriate medical insurance to cover any incidents.

From there the drivers have loss of earnings insurance, covering the period (one year) and broken into increments equal to the number of races during that period (as are their contracts with the teams), and these policies are generally written with a one race deductible (ie. no cover for the first race they miss, full cover thereafter) which covers the money that they won't receive from the teams in their absence. THB provides cover for pretty much all of the F1 field, and has contacts in lower categories.

F1 cars are not insured: effectively they are uninsurable as either a car or even a machine or item of stock as they are constantly changed from race to race, meaning it is impossible to define the item on a policy. They are also expensive, but that would be easy enough to get around with sufficient premium: they would only be insurable if the cars went unchanged for the period of risk, and clearly no team is going to keep their car unchanged for a year.

GP2 cars (and some lower categories) are insured, as their design is unchanged over the season: the drivers are generally presented with the insurance details as part of their contract with the team, and are responsible for the first EUR 10k deductible (which would cover the loss of a complete corner of a car before hitting the policy). The deductible has to be that high as pitching it lower would make the premium unaffordable for teams/drivers at that level of income, plus it means the policy responds to serious incidents only, rather than covering general damage. There are a number of companies offering similar products throughout Europe.

I think that covers everything asked above.

[Impellam]

In simple terms, a drivers Insurance (indeed most professional sports insurance) cover is split into 4 distinct categories

1. Accidental Death - A lump sum chosen by the Policyholder. Obviously the more succesful the individual the higher this tends to be. This can be restricted to accidents whilst racing/testing only or extended as general Life Insurance, usually with restrictions against activities e.g. skiing etc
2. Accidental Permanent Disability - A lump sum in case of accident which curtails the Poolicyholder from carrying out their normal occupation. This is what Donnelly was paid out for, as he was so injured he couldn't continue as a F1 driver. Again, this can be restricted to racing/testing or extended.
3. Accidental Total temporary Disablement - this is where the Policyholder has suffered an accident which temporarily stops them from performing. A good example is MSC's broken leg where he missed several races. This pays out a fixed sum per race missed in most instances, and is usually based on the drivers annual retainer devided by the number of races in a season e.g a driver earns $3.6 Million for 18 races, so every race missed as a result of an injury will pay $200K. usually comes with an excess or deductible (like your car insurance) of 1 or 2 races before payments commence to keep costs down.
4. Medical Expeneses - a lump sum (never below $1M in f1) which covers hospital expenses, fees, repatriation, physio and rehab etc.


Policies are taken out by the Drivers, by teams against what they pay their drivers or even by sponsors depending on the nature of contracts.

The vast majority are underwritten in Lloyds of London where a number of Insurance Underwriters (companies) will take a percentage of each policy to spread the risk - the higher the sums being insured the more Insurers will become involved depending on how much they're willing or able to commit to any one Policy.

The only mandatory cover required is medical expenses, so a pay driver may be paying only $30-50K for a very basic insurance. Conversely, the high earners may be paying between $500 - 1M annually, as they're insuring not only their current contract but also future earnings in the case of 1) and 2) above.

An interesting aside is that usually the contract has to be lodged as part of the Insurance Contract to prove they have an 'insurable interest', i.e. so someone earning $250K a year can't insure themselves for $2M a year, thereby gaining a benefit from the insurance; makes it kind of fun when the drivers salary figures are being bandied about as fact, as they're usually well off the reality.

[pingu666]

pescarolo doesnt insure his cars, said on average it works about the same to not insure xD. peugeot wanted a large sum of money for the 908 he ran that crashed at le mans