Mosley's new ideas for 2008 - is he insane?

[Inigo Montoya]

www.gazzetta.it Don't bother unless you read Italian.

In summary, he wants to introduce, in 2008, regulations limiting the salary of drivers, and, get this... age! A salary cap, and mandatory retirement, all under the guise of making F1 more exciting and cutting costs. Is he mad?

[b1ackcr0w]

Absolutely standard Bernie/Max tactic. Table a bunch of totally mad, unworkable proposals. Watch the sparkes fly as the various people you've set out to upset get annoyed. Table a second set of proposals that sound almost reasonable compared to the first lot, which should go through without too much fuss in fear that the first proposals might be resurrected.

They tend to do this about 2 or 3 times a year, often just before a meeting of the technical working group.

[Sodemo]

I like the sound of the 90% aero cut, though after the teams have "negotiated" im sure it will turn into a 5% cut.

[Adam43]

nah they'll lose 90%, but get 85% back!

[Kicking-back]

Some sensible proposals in there.

I love the way people spend so much time complaining about F1 being dull or whatever, yet any time changes are proposed we see thread titles like "Is Mosley insane"

[Slippy Diff]

Whats wrong with capping salaries? Probably wouldn't hurt to propose the same for Premiership footballers.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

Some sensible proposals in there.

I love the way people spend so much time complaining about F1 being dull or whatever, yet any time changes are proposed we see thread titles like "Is Mosley insane"

Mosley is insane,but some of the proposals are very good anyway.

[Inigo Montoya]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

Some sensible proposals in there.

I love the way people spend so much time complaining about F1 being dull or whatever, yet any time changes are proposed we see thread titles like "Is Mosley insane"

First off... I NEVER have complained F1 is dull. I am a lifelong Ferrari fan, and watched the joke of a team they had through the 80's and 90's, so now I NEVER tire of seeing them win.

Mandatory retirement? I repeat.. is he insane?

Salary cap for drivers? What for? To make sure that Minardi have an "equal" chance of signing Michael Schumacher? I repeat: Is he insane?

This reminds me of the "Lets make the drivers do one race in each car" nonsense that he tried to sell a couple of years back. Senility?

[Kicking-back]

Senility?

That's verging on personal abuse towards the man and is quite uncalled for.


These ideas are to generate talking points and new thinking.

They're doing that!

[Slippy Diff]

Originally Posted by Inigo Montoya

Salary cap for drivers? What for? To make sure that Minardi have an "equal" chance of signing Michael Schumacher? I repeat: Is he insane?

Aah, but according to every driver on the grid, money is not the most important issue. They all want to win races and the WDC. Therefore the best drivers will still go to the best teams. So Minardi are extremely unlikely to sign Scumacher even if he was to be paid the same as at Ferrari. So again, whats wrong with capping salaries.

[Inigo Montoya]

My point exactly Slippy... Minardi are extremely unlikely to sign Schumacher, so why bother limiting his salary under the guise that it'd make it likely that he'd sign there.

[Inigo Montoya]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

Senility?

That's verging on personal abuse towards the man and is quite uncalled for.


These ideas are to generate talking points and new thinking.

They're doing that!

Mr. Mosley, if you are reading this, I apologize unreservedly for calling you senile

[Slippy Diff]

Originally Posted by Inigo Montoya

My point exactly Slippy... Minardi are extremely unlikely to sign Schumacher, so why bother limiting his salary under the guise that it'd make it likely that he'd sign there.

I don't think the reasoning behind salary caps was to make it easy for Minardi to sign Schumacher, but rather to reduce overheads. Capping salaries at say 5,000,000 would still put most of the top drivers out of the reach of the lower order teams.
Just because you place a limit on salaries does not mean that that amount has to paid. There will still be pay drivers, and I would take a guess that there are not too many drivers on the grid that are paid more than 5,000,000 by the teams. Most of them bolster their salaries with personal sponsorship deals anyway. Am I right or wrong in understanding that Schumacher earns more through his personal sponsorship and merchandising than is paid to him by Ferrari??

[Inigo Montoya]

Not sure Slippy. I think he does endorsements, but his driving salary remains massive. It used to be that Marlboro picked up the salary, but I'm not sure anymore.

[Slippy Diff]

His salary is huge, no doubt, but his merchandising business profit most likely makes it look like pocket money. I will have a google.

[MRJUCY]

The thing is unlike football where there is a team of players to be paying drivers salaries are not a major cost in comparison to everything else in Formula 1 so it isn't a major area of cost reduction.
I'm sure Frank Williams is a big fan of the idea tho

[Slippy Diff]

Originally Posted by MRJUCY

The thing is unlike football where there is a team of players to be paying drivers salaries are not a major cost in comparison to everything else in Formula 1 so it isn't a major area of cost reduction.
I'm sure Frank Williams is a big fan of the idea tho

I don't know. I would imagine the drivers salaries at McLaren are not too insignificant. Can't be far off 8 figures each for Montoya and party boy.

[Slippy Diff]

I know its not too up to date but have a quick look at this.
http://tentenths.com/forum/archive/i...p/t-52938.html

Salaries are definitely a very large chunk of a seasons budget, whatever the team.

[Adam43]

Oh no, someone gets paid lots when they are good at something, what is the world coming to?

So if there was a cap on salaries then only the best drivers would be in F1. Not too different to now. Also the best drivers would just get to find the best teams as they would all be the paid the same. That is a radical change. I predict that Schumacher would end up in a Ferrari. Except the only difference is that he wouldn't have gone there in '96 he could just chose the best team each year.

It will, at worse, make no difference to F1. At best just require the best team to always have the best driver!

And, lets face it, this is in gazzetta . It is an alledged Mosely suggestion and provoke ill thought ideas (including my own)

In conclusion

[Slippy Diff]

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

Oh no, someone gets paid lots when they are good at something, what is the world coming to?

So if there was a cap on salaries then only the best drivers would be in F1. Not too different to now. Also the best drivers would just get to find the best teams as they would all be the paid the same. That is a radical change. I predict that Schumacher would end up in a Ferrari. Except the only difference is that he wouldn't have gone there in '96 he could just chose the best team each year.

It will, at worse, make no difference to F1. At best just require the best team to always have the best driver!

And, lets face it, this is in gazzetta . It is an alledged Mosely suggestion and provoke ill thought ideas (including my own)

In conclusion

Some of that sounds a bit like what I said. They want to cut costs so capping salaries would help with that. Simple.

[Adam43]

It wouldn't help that much. Driver salaries are not 10% for most teams. Yet we all consider and want them to be important!

[Slippy Diff]

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

10% for most teams.

10% of a lot is a lot!!

[Skam85]

I read somewhere that Micheal earns more in a week than Minardi pay both their drivers in a season!

[Raglanparade]

That would be because the Minardi Pilots pay for there drives ?

[Skam85]

true, but they still earn a wage. It was just surprising to see TGF earns 52 times more than both Minardi drivers put together! I knew he earned a lot, but it just surprised me it was so much more.