[Woolley]

Catching up on my reading of Autosport (several weeks behind) I came across an article which says that the cost of providing marshalling and medical cover at a multi-day F1 test would be around £200,000 'according to senior F1 sources'. It goes on to say that 'the cost of such cover at this year's Australian GP was just over £400,000, but for testing it would be "less than half that"'

So this raises my curiosity as to how these two figures were arrived at.

First of all - correct me if I'm wrong - I believe that overalls and some food is provided in Australia, not sure about any subsistence allowances. In the UK I think they still pay £5 per day.

Does this means that they'd be expecting marshals to give their time equally cheaply (free!) for testing by these mega-buck operations? And why on earth would it be half the cost for testing than it was for the actual GP, presumably for the same cover? Spectator marshals not required?

I want to avoid GP bashing, but I'd love some clarification of my assumptions if anyone has the facts, and I wonder who'd be prepared to devote their time, holiday and travelling costs for this. And before you ask, no, I wouldn't.