Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton will soon have to make clear compromises in the salary? If it goes to Flavio Briatore, then you would have to do that, because the Italian pleads to include driver salaries into the budget limit in the future. Protective salaries, as the three top earners in other positions, are currently not one of them.
“I believe that the driver’s salary should be part of this limit,” says the executive consultant of the Alpine team, who, after the departure of Oliver Oakes, also took over the team boss role of the race stable.
The proposal should not be well received, especially among the drivers. Even if the FIA increased the border for this, drivers such as Max Verstappen, who is supposed to earn an estimated 80 million euros a year, would have to make strong cuts, because the team otherwise lacks budget for the development of the car.
Thus, every euro salary would be a disadvantage for your own team, which could also consider getting significantly cheaper drivers, even if they may not be quite as fast – but the disadvantage could then be brought back in.
Briatores argument: The only thing that has changed in the period since his previous position with Benetton and Renault is the costs. “The races are the same. What you can see on TV is the same. The struggle between the drivers is the same. The best driver wins – and so on.”
“What we see now are the costs. They have risen massively. But only because the costs rise does not mean that the business is going better or the show is better. It is the same,” says the Italian. “We are doing a lot at the moment,” he criticizes and would therefore like to see an even more strict border.
And the driver’s salaries include: “Absolutely, pure with it!”
Briatore praises new perception of Formula 1
Nevertheless, a lot has changed since then. Formula 1 has been different since Liberty Media has been at the helm. More and more traditional routes are disappearing, but places such as Miami, Dschidda or Las Vegas come. Briatore considers this development to be fantastic.
“The perception of Formula 1 is much, much larger today,” he says. “If you remember our time: In the USA it was practically impossible at the time – in Phoenix, for example, no spectators. In addition to the route, horses were horses, and the people who were supposed to go to Formula 1 went to horse racing instead.”
Somehow Formula 1 in the United States never seemed to be happy, and with that of Indianapolis after 2007 the states were no longer represented in the calendar. In the meantime, however, you even have three races with Austin, Miami and Las Vegas.
“The work that has been done for Formula 1 in the past ten years is incredible – especially in the USA,” says Briatoree and considers Formula 1 to be “very strong” today.
“Many young people follow Formula 1. In our time it was not the case. I think the average age of the fans was 50, 55 years old. Now we have a lot of young people. This is fantastic for Formula 1,” he says.
“The perception that young people have from Formula 1 today is fantastic. Young drivers, all communicate – this is a huge step forward, especially in the United States.”