planetf1.com

Which is why I said he shouldn't have done it

Of course the drivers are paid too much, not that anybody (myself included) care one way or the other.

Is Max paid more than Adrian? That would be the real stunner for me.

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Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity.

Maria de Villota - Jules Bianchi

https://www.totalsportek.com/f1/formula ... -revealed/

According to this 1/3 of the grid earn leas than $1m, a third of the grid earn between $1m and $5m, and a third earn more than $5m.

So, when you look at it like that...

Is Lewis Hamilton 10x better than Perez?

But how many people now who Sergio Perez is (outside of Mexico)?

What is baffling is that Alonso can still earn so much money. Especially as someone pointed out above, there's so few top cars to drive that the teams hold all the cards.

Then you have Dan, who is (supposedly) earning $6.5m (to Max's $3m... hang on I thought Max was earning more?), he's the hot property but if he can't get in a Ferrari or a Merc he's stuck with Red Bull. So surely RB could offer him 3yrs at RB on $7m a year and he wouldn't really have any option.

Is it too cynical to say that for F1 to be perceived as the 'ultimate' motor sport, it 'NEEDS' to have overpaid drivers? But it only needs about 3-4 to pull off the illusion? As others have said, and I have said in the past, if you want the big bucks you need to become a 'personality', the differences in ability between these guys is marginal - so why these guys don't invest in themselves by putting themselves out there more is a mystery to me.

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Shoot999: "And anyone who puts a Y on the end of his name as a nickname should be punched in the face repeatedly."

^

I suppose the argument for some of these high paid drivers is wether they have a world title or wins under their belt. Those 1/3 of the drivers have won grand prix's or world titles. The rest are battling for points. Like most aspects of life , luck plays a huge factor for most of us, not just talent.

IMO in all sports are way too much rewards.

tbh, I think Alonso is a prime example of why the top guys get the big bucks. As I think mikeyg123 pointed out earlier, if he carries on accumulating the points like he has been doing, he'll almost single-handedly be responsible for bumping McLaren up a couple of places in the WCC,k which in turn will pay for his salary

However, that is the money which is being generated by and large, and so who should pocket the money and with what weighting? Because typically the players and competitors in sport get shafted comparatively to the higher ups - at least some would argue.

True, but on the other hand, why on earth were they paying him $50m or whatever it was when the car was absolute rubbish? What a waste of money, and really... again, did they really need to pay that much to get him? I know Honda wanted Alonso but by hiring him it just put even more of a spotlight on how useless there were.

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Shoot999: "And anyone who puts a Y on the end of his name as a nickname should be punched in the face repeatedly."

If you subscribe to the theory that there is no such thing as unearned income then they are not overpaid.

But if you do believe there is such thing as unearned income, then for sure (to use an F1ism) they are overrated, along with football prima donnas, and other professional sportsmen.

The difference in salaries between the drivers does not in any meaningful or accurate way reflect the actual difference in talent or hard work. If driver A receives 20 million dollars per year and driver B receives 5 million dollars per year, it is really hard to argue this is justified because driver A is four times as talented as driver B, or that he works five times are hard as driver B.

Also we should bear in mind that a lot of talent never really makes it to the F1. A lot of people say that the best drivers rise to the top and so on. But for every successful driver who transitions to F1, there are probably one hundred more who never make it, not necessarily due to lack of skill, or talent or hard work. Probably chance and circumstances play a more important role, but in retrospect the drivers themselves, their promoters, their agents and their employers justify the expenses by this nice fairy-tale of hard work and talent being rewarded. They forget to mention the Hamiltons and Verstappens who never had a chance to prove themselves.

It's all make-believe.

And this relates only to the differences between the drivers. If we start comparing drivers to the actual engineers and designers, then things get even more fun. In which universe drivers work harder than the engineers? In their respective field, I would say engineers work at least as hard as the drivers. Yet what is the compensation for the engineers? I don't have the data, but I think we all know the answer.

Looking at prize money from 2017 the difference between finishing first and second in the championship was 13.7 million (I'm assuming dollars but the table doesn't say http://thenewswheel.com/how-the-formula ... e-in-2021/)

Assuming you believe driver A will mean you are likely to get first place and driver B means likely second then that justifies most of the difference, add to that the extra advertising revenue you can generate from finishing first and the value to current sponsors and owners driver A is worth the extra cash!

Add to that the ability to attract better engineers to the team both through having a well regarded driver and doing well, which will help the team compete at the top for a while (hopefully)

That would be a good argument if the cars were equal and the drivers where what made the difference. A driver might make a meaningful difference now and again, but overall the cars themselves determine the WCC.

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Shoot999: "And anyone who puts a Y on the end of his name as a nickname should be punched in the face repeatedly."

Well looking how close last year was between Vettel and Hamilton and how close this year looks to be shaping up to be it seems like a good argument. If either Ferrari or Merc had replaced their driver with Stroll it would have been a walkover for the other team in 2017...

Beyond the driver of MB, Ferrari and Red Bull, I suspect that Alonso is the only other driver that gets paid.

The rest have to bring in various levels of sponsorship to be able to buy their seat - if they crash enough even that sponsorship can't save them

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Free market my butt. Yes they are paid way to much. Good teachers should get 20 million and F1 drivers should get 15 bucks an hour. Maybe it's just me but the intrinsic value of a good teacher and their resultant impact on society is clearly of more value that a person with gryos in their pants.

You know, what's worth more a platinum GMT master or a bag of corn seeds.