17/05/2021
NEWS STORY
As discussions over the proposed cap on driver salaries continue, it is understood that a $30m limit is to be agreed.
In February it was announced that a working group was to be set up to look into the possibility of a salary cap for drivers and leading staff, for despite the introduction of the budget cap this year, one of the most contentious aspects of teams spending appeared to have been overlooked.
While the overall team budget cap is $145m this year - reducing to $135m by 2023 - the salaries of drivers and a number of 'leading' personnel are exempt.
Getting the teams to accept a budget cap was one thing, but the idea of limiting what they can pay their drivers and top staff quite another, and, understandably, a number of the drivers are not happy.
Indeed, it is believed that Lewis Hamilton's one-year deal with Mercedes is worth around £40m - at $55m, more than a third of the 2021 limit his team is allowed to spend on its entire race programme.
Following February's meeting of the F1 Commission it was announced that a working group was being set up to investigate the possibility of introducing a cap on salaries.
"As 2021 sees the introduction of a cost cap for the first time in Formula 1, various topics around controlling costs and how this overall objective can be achieved over the coming years were tabled during the meeting," read the official statement. "As part of this, a working group will be created – including the drivers themselves – to discuss the topic of driver and senior team management contracts."
Three months later and the teams are thinking along the lines of a $30m cap.
"At the end that is up to the teams," said AlphaTauri's, Franz Tost recently. "I think it should not be more than around 30 million for both drivers but once more this is in discussion and it depends then always how much financial resources the different teams have and in which direction we will go."
"I think the number that Franz mentioned was mentioned in the discussion, so in that region," agreed Otmar Szafnauer.
"We are in early discussions so I think there needs to be done a lot more work before we get to a number and how it is applied and all that stuff, so I don't want to get to a number." said Guenther Steiner.
It is understood that under the current proposal, teams would be allowed to over spend in terms of the driver salary cap, but the excess amount would then be deducted from the ($145m) race budget. However, should they underspend the remaining money could not be used for other purposes.
It's understood that only Mercedes spends in excess of $30m on its drivers.