Kimi to earn $1m US per week.

those poor souls

 

You know, I must say that this seems a bit ridiculous. I mean, let's be honest about it. Kimi may have won a few races, and he's certainly shown himself to be fast, but the reality is that the market for driving talent compensation seems to be out of whack.

Frankly, IMO, ALL Grand Prix drivers are overcompensated. Should Kubica, Hamilton and Kovalainen be paid multi-millions? So far, they haven't done anything. $35 million for Alonso? $10 million for Massa? This is just off the charts.

It seems, as is most things, the prize for the top spot is extraordinary. But, if you're anything lower on the totem pole than an F1 piloti, you're most likely struggling to make ends meet. Same in all professional sports. Same in Business. Same in life.

Can we ever put the brakes on this increasing trend of overpayment?

CW

 

When you are an aspiring young driver, you must finance your own ride, and find your own sponsorhip money, regardless of what team you race for.

I doub't those young guys even earn a paycheck. The teams wouldn't hire and fire their drivers so often if they had a long-term contract.

Drivers are traded like baseball cards, they go where the money tells them to.

 

I remember that not so long ago - until the early '90s - there were young, penniless drivers in F.1 who were earning literally peanuts. Some of them were driving for free, supported only by family & sponsors; the lucky ones were earning $100-200K per year, and many (usually the less talented ones ) actually had to PAY their teams for their rides.

Ask people like Patrese, Mansell, Damon Hill how much they earned at the beginning of their careers. Very little, if anything. I seem to remember that poor Damon Hill won his world championship while earning less than $1m that season, and the following year Williams sacked him because he dared ask for a pay rise.

I think F.1 has become a sick sport. Think about it: everyone is complaining against costs, and to "fix the problem" Mosely gives us emasculated cars with engines and chassis so restricted by regulations that you cannot even distinguish the difference between a Ferrari and a Renault anymore; the engineers have really little creative work left to do. Yet, all teams squander enormous capital in gargantuan motor homes that take a team of 20 people to assemble and disassemble every weekend, and which cost tens of MILLIONS of dollars; we get people like Briatore promoting a "party till you drop" lifestyle where more and more of the teams' millions get thrown down the drain with no added value to the sport; and we have also-rans without a point to their credit (let alone a victory) earning MILLIONS of dollars just because "they are there".

This sport must get its priorities right. Get rid of the briatores, of the motorhomes, of the yachts and the parties; start paying drivers exclusively on the basis of RESULTS obtained on the track; give the engineers free rein to their creativity to design cars which are actually different from one another.

 

Ferrari figures he is worth it because he one of the top 3 or 4, this counts for half his salary, Then he is worth the other half because they DONT HAVE TO TRY and BEAT HIM!.... Just like shumi was, I think the money is great, the more the merrier, old NFL guys sing the same old song about low wages...bummer for them. Now Flavio, he doesnt have the big motor homes and other panderings, live good, but wins for a third less dough!!!..Its all a matter of priorities!

 

"You get what you pay for", this term applies to F1 exclusively.

Everyone thinks by paying the most, you will get the best, therefore in order to sign the best driver, you must secure the most money. Not true!

I believe this ideology has been broken by Alonso in '05, and again in '06. The focus has been put on signing the next young talent instead of signing the current superstar by throwing him a big cheque.

 

The reason for motorhomes, yachts and parties is to bring sponsors, the reason sponsors go for this - is to meet the other sponsors and local government officials and make business deals. It just a country club on a whole new level.

 

Compensation for pro athletes is definitely out of wack these days. Actually for any type of entertainer!

That combined with incesant advertising for the same things the world over is making the whole world look like a big mall with almost no variety.

F1, unfortunately, is just another example.

I would stop following it but there's nothing else left! Watch the NFL? no. NBA, no. Euro Soccer, maybe. Sailing, yes! Other wacky, out of the public eye sports, yes!

 

Which is about Anthony Davidson's retainer at Super Aguri in 2007.

 

The way I see it, if you think an F1 driver is overpaid, then why don't you simply become an F1 driver and make the big bucks yourself?

Substitue "Fortune 500 CEO", "baseball player" or "movie star" for F1 Driver at your leisure...

 

FA is finally being paid what he deserves. I think he was at around $7mil, which is low for a proven world champion.
Kubica's pay is about right, Hamilton is getting way too much, and Heikki needs to drive a little more to be determined.

 

$50 Million, Holy ****,. Where does Ferrari pull this money from, I know they have cars sales and sponsors, but heaven forbid you dropped 10 million off his contract, with that 10 million you could 1000 people an extra $10,000 a year at the factory. This is way to excessive, he is making $1.65 every second. People in third world countries dont make that in a day. I mean please after about 20 million dollars a year, what is there left to buy, seriously you can get a plane, multiple house, many Ferraris, yachts, etc etc.
As for "ripping Massa off" with a paltry 10million, does anyone know someone who comes into a your company and gets paid 5 times what you get for doing the same job. In the time it took me to write this post, Kimi will earn $400 dollars.

 

Tell the team owners that I'll drive for free if necessities are provided.

 

Agree with most of what you say here. Why do teams spend so much money on the 'sideline' - motorhomes, yachts, entertainment, etc...
You would think that they would spend every penny (sorry cent) on the cars!
I only suppose that it is because of the old adage "Money goes to money".
It maybe that by displaying some wealth, some teams are more attractive to potential sponsors, because they 'look the business', they are flashy.
And also, never forget that big sponsorship is often the decision of only a few men in a corporation. It is possible that entertaining the keys decision makers for potential sponsors by 'winning and dinning' them, offering them posh hospitality suites, etc... etc... may trigger a favourable outcome in the end.
Outside F1, I am sometimes amazed by the PR budget some companies spend, just to attract business. And, I gather that all top sports do the same; what about American football, basketball teams, etc... do they have the same thing?

 

In terms of American football, there is little excessive compared to F1 because whatever money is spent is basically coming out of the owners' pockets. The same is with basketball. American sports really just concentrate on playing the game and not all the economic logistics.

 

Again why sponsorship must go IMO ... lets get back to racing, not w@nking around in some glitzy poor taste show.

Pete

 

I always think they get the $$$ as a payment for the risks involved. I know that isn't quite true if you compare F1 salaries to Rally drivers, but it is what I will say to anybody who will lament the next dead F1 pilot.

I wish no harm to anybody, but if one of these guys hits a wall too hard, well that's why you got the big bucks in the first place.

 

this is ridiculous...just think of the more sensible options a million dollars a week could be used for...

 

How much did Schumacher make a year @ Ferrari?

I read he was the highest paid athlete in any sport earning over $100 million a year, but that was an article a few years back.

I would drive for any F1 team for 6 figures a year... I mean just the experience would be amazing.

I wonder if they would ever do a "salary cap" on the drivers? That money could definitely be used to pay more to the workers or engineers or even go more toward R & D to take the sport to the next level instead of limiting them with all those excessive restrictions. What is that supposed to accomplish anyway? This is the pinnacle of motorsports racing and auto engineering, they should be 5 years ahead of road cars at least...

 

i would drive for none

 

Not forgetting that during Michael's rein, a large portion of his salary was paid directly by the sponsore and when he joined Ferrari he was realistically the only really charismatic, albeit potentially dangerous, driver out there. Apart from him you had what Damon Hill, well would you.
So they go to the sponsor's and say we want to hire the fastest guy out there who will also get us LOTS of publicity and of course Marlboro and all the others would be keen, don't be surprised if the current sponsors havent also agreed to the same thing.
As to rising costs why don't they go down the path of allowing all the car's to have a certain amount of downforce and letting each team decide how they will go about attaining that level of downforce. Then we might have some differences between cars.


Cheers

Timmmy

 

I do pity them....2.8 mil, thats not even enough to buy 3 Bugatti Veyrons...there deffenetly missing out LOL

 

Would you rather have drivers being paid, or have it like Champcar and the IRL., where pay drivers seem to be the norm? At least if the series is healthy enough to be paying money to drivers, they can secure somewhat competent drivers, and not have them filter out to Nascar for more money.

 

Um, just how much of the F1 grid do you think is actually getting paid to drive?