SEPTEMBER 18, 2002

Salary caps for F1 drivers?

There has been a lot of talk in F1 circles about the need for a system of salary capping, to avoid huge amounts of money being spent on drivers when the money is short. At the moment a number of drivers are earning far more money than they deserve, based on their results, and the team bosses have begun to wonder whether they would be in a position to impose a restriction if they got together. The only way in which drivers could fight against this would be to get together and strike - as has happened in baseball in the United States - but the chances of all the drivers agreeing on anything is very small because of the disparity of salaries and the fact that most people would be quite satisfied with being paid $5m a year.

The ideas are still only being mulled over, but there is little doubt that when the sums are done it becomes increasingly clear that in some cases drivers are an expense far beyond their worth.