Following Grosjean's accident, there has been a lot of discussion about the standard of marshalling, so I thought I'd put forward a marshal's point of view.
I have been marshalling for many years, and have seen many changes, and not always for the better, Anyway, here we go.
First and foremost, marshals are volunteers. As a rule we don't get paid other than a cup of coffee and a programme. Some clubs make a token payment, others offer a discount system; in our case, if we do get said token payment, it goes towards a breakfast and the change goes to whichever one of us has driven. Please note, every club is different but as a rule of thumb, the smaller the club, the more grateful they are to marshals.
Our orange overalls are not fireproof, they are flame retardant Proban, a big difference. Most marshals wear the normal single layer; personally I buy 2 layer but they are almost double the cost at £120 rather than £65. And yes, we buy our own equipment. I have gloves for each marshalling role, non slip for flagging, welder's gauntlets for track/incident, Nomex racing gloves for Fire and Incident Officer and thermal gloves for Post Chief - it's hard to write a detailed incident report with cold hands. Gloves range from £5 to £50. A good set of Waterproofs is at least £150 but if you want fire resistant, they are about £500. Footwear again depends on the role: steel toecapped boots for Track/Incident, hiking boots for flagging or Post Chief, Nomex boots for Fire and Incident Officer duties. Again, footwear ranges from £20 to £75.
Not only is there the financial commitment, but there is the time commitment. It is true you can do as few meetings as you want, but this my view: I have 2 family members that I marshal with. We do 20 days a year at race meetings organised by our main club. We also do 6 days a year as away days, where we choose a meeting and go there. We do another 5 or 6 days with a secondary club and 3 to 6 meetings at a local circuit for speed events. On top of that we do at least 2 days training a year with various clubs. For those meeting we go away for, it's a day's travelling either side of the meeting, plus a hotel. So that's roughly 40 days a year.
Training is how we keep up to date. Sadly it isn't possible to replicate an accident like Grosjean's but fire training is always part of the agenda. The first thing we are taught is not to out yourself in harm's way and the optimum distance and method from which to fight a fire. UK marshal's are graded by Motorsport UK and there is recognised progression scheme. However, it is impossible to tell how anyone will deal or cope with a serious incident regardless of their experience or grading. We are, after all, individuals and human, so anyone can and will make mistakes or errors of judgement in the heat of the moment.
Newer marshals are no longer trained to cope with incidents under local yellow flags and many are shocked to be asked to do so. This is where experience and local circuit knowledge comes in when you know how long the next car will take to arrive at the scene, and whether you can get the incident cleared without race control intervention. We no longer have regular teams either. It used to be that you would be with the same people foe many seasons and you get to know what everyone's role is and you can work as a team. The retention of marshals is a problem, so the idea of teams no longer works. And the average age of marshals is rising - in the UK, it is well over 60.
The UK is fortunate to have plenty of circuits and thus the opportunity for experience is high but in may Countries this isn't the case, especially for International events. It's also the case that for many high profile events, marshals are viewed as a necessary evil and are expected to do 12-14 hour days. If marshals were to become professionals and paid, where is the money going to come from ? One club I marshal with no longer uses a local circuit as they can't afford it. They would need a full entry just to cover costs. Add in 30 marshals at minimum wage at they would need to raise an additional £3000 and that is just for a sprint. Circuit owners and race organisers very rarely make a substantial profit and often rely upon a single major event to balance costs. Trying to raise an additional £30,000 to £50,000 per race meeting for professional marshals would not be possible. An on those lines, changes to circuit safety also have to be paid for. Most meetings have only a handful of paying customers so it certainly isn't through gate money. It certainly rankles many marshals that security/car park staff get paid whilst marshals don't.
The vast majority of marshals give up their time for love of the sport but for those with family commitments it becomes harder and harder to justify the time and expense, so rather than sit behind a keyboard and moan or tar all marshals with the same stick, volunteer your time and come and join us on the bank - you'll find it a lot harder than you think.