The F1 thread

prowla

chillidoggy said:

How on earth can a top team like Ferrari get it so wrong? Beggars belief.

It's not like they've got form, is it...

Fretwired

Cols said:

Fretwired said:

Hamilton being greedy?  He apparently wants a £40 million a year new deal ...

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-demanding-40m-deal/

Well, Mercedes are going to have lots of spare cash left over next year when the budget cap kicks in.  Why shouldn’t Lewis help himself to some of it?

Mercedes have lost billions of pounds this year in lost sales and production - factories were closed during the Covid-19 crisis and the world economy has taken a dump. The F1 team probably saved some money as being a British-based team the government would have given them money.

I think it the current economic crisis it is somewhat crass when other teams are in trouble and people are being laid off.

Cols

Fretwired said:

Cols said:

Fretwired said:

Hamilton being greedy?  He apparently wants a £40 million a year new deal ...

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-demanding-40m-deal/

Well, Mercedes are going to have lots of spare cash left over next year when the budget cap kicks in.  Why shouldn’t Lewis help himself to some of it?

Mercedes have lost billions of pounds this year in lost sales and production - factories were closed during the Covid-19 crisis and the world economy has taken a dump. The F1 team probably saved some money as being a British-based team the government would have given them money.

I think it the current economic crisis it is somewhat crass when other teams are in trouble and people are being laid off.

Absolutely, I was being facetious.  The thought process which leads to an already lavishly rewarded driver to demand a pay rise in the middle of global economic collapse is difficult to follow.

Toto Wolff has already signalled that staff redundancies are inevitable; drivers continuing to receive megabucks salaries while their team members are losing their jobs is a seriously bad look.

markr76

The staff redundancies will come because of the new f1 regulations. The new budget cap is big. Not that it makes it better but the driver salaries doesn’t come from the budget cap. Also Mercedes F1 didn’t accept money from the government from the Covid crisis as far as I’m aware. I think we were the only team to not furlough staff. We all my friends at the other teams all got furloughed. 

I wouldn’t believe the salary figures being thrown around on the internet gossip sites. Reality is only Mercedes and Hamilton know what’s going on with contracts/money. 

markr76

As for what the top drivers earn. Can’t say I agree with it. But it’s just the way things are, wrong as it may be. Same across the majority of top sports. In my experience f1 drivers are incredibly selfish people who don’t really care about the little people around them. Then again they have to be selfish if they want to succeed in f1. Same with football. I’d say none of them really live in the real world as much as they say they do. 

Fretwired

markr76 said:

The staff redundancies will come because of the new f1 regulations. The new budget cap is big. Not that it makes it better but the driver salaries doesn’t come from the budget cap. Also Mercedes F1 didn’t accept money from the government from the Covid crisis as far as I’m aware. I think we were the only team to not furlough staff. We all my friends at the other teams all got furloughed. 

I wouldn’t believe the salary figures being thrown around on the internet gossip sites. Reality is only Mercedes and Hamilton know what’s going on with contracts/money. 

Is Bradley Lord still with you?

fretmeister

markr76 said:

As for what the top drivers earn. Can’t say I agree with it. But it’s just the way things are, wrong as it may be. Same across the majority of top sports. In my experience f1 drivers are incredibly selfish people who don’t really care about the little people around them. Then again they have to be selfish if they want to succeed in f1. Same with football. I’d say none of them really live in the real world as much as they say they do. 

Quite.

The guy who designs a wing is just as obsessed and just as skilled. But they can't put his face on a lunch box and make money from it.

markr76

Fretwired said:

markr76 said:

The staff redundancies will come because of the new f1 regulations. The new budget cap is big. Not that it makes it better but the driver salaries doesn’t come from the budget cap. Also Mercedes F1 didn’t accept money from the government from the Covid crisis as far as I’m aware. I think we were the only team to not furlough staff. We all my friends at the other teams all got furloughed. 

I wouldn’t believe the salary figures being thrown around on the internet gossip sites. Reality is only Mercedes and Hamilton know what’s going on with contracts/money. 

Is Bradley Lord still with you?

As far as I know. I don’t know him personally though. He tends to mix with the race team ones. They don’t speak to us plebs!

markr76

markr76 said:

The staff redundancies will come because of the new f1 regulations. The new budget cap is big. Not that it makes it better but the driver salaries doesn’t come from the budget cap. Also Mercedes F1 didn’t accept money from the government from the Covid crisis as far as I’m aware. I think we were the only team to not furlough staff. We all my friends at the other teams all got furloughed. 

I wouldn’t believe the salary figures being thrown around on the internet gossip sites. Reality is only Mercedes and Hamilton know what’s going on with contracts/money. 

I am hoping though the cuts, if any, are not too big. It’s a worrying time for everyone at the minute. It worries me as I’ve a new born at home. But there’s lots of people in a similar position to me. I hope things don’t change too much either as I enjoy working at Mercedes. It’s a fantastic place to work.

Cols

I’m sure things must be stressful at the factory @markr76; I hope F1 staff can be redeployed to other branches of motorsport and compulsory redundancies can be avoided.

My understanding of the need for the budget cap is that there simply isn’t enough money being generated by F1 to maintain the current structure.  This was true before the pandemic hit, but has been thrown into sharper focus by the current crisis.  Car manufacturers are facing massive losses, sponsors will be tightening their belts, circuits will have reduced income with closed door races or, at best, socially distanced seating, and television channels will have less income as subscribers view their monthly budgets and glumly decide that they don’t really need that Sky Sports F1 subscription.

I understand that the driver’s salary is independent of the budget cap, but the money has to come from somewhere.  That could be from a larger share of the prize money which Mercedes has to negotiate from Liberty, a sponsor lured away from another team, or the salary of another team member who lies outside the budget cap.  Could Bottas be asked to take a pay cut, or to drive for free, because Lewis fancies even more money?  Could Williams fold because Merc have hoovered up potential sponsors in order to meet driver salary demands?

Essentially, it’s demanding a larger slice of a rapidly vanishing cake.  

markr76

Cols said:

I’m sure things must be stressful at the factory @markr76; I hope F1 staff can be redeployed to other branches of motorsport and compulsory redundancies can be avoided.

My understanding of the need for the budget cap is that there simply isn’t enough money being generated by F1 to maintain the current structure.  This was true before the pandemic hit, but has been thrown into sharper focus by the current crisis.  Car manufacturers are facing massive losses, sponsors will be tightening their belts, circuits will have reduced income with closed door races or, at best, socially distanced seating, and television channels will have less income as subscribers view their monthly budgets and glumly decide that they don’t really need that Sky Sports F1 subscription.

I understand that the driver’s salary is independent of the budget cap, but the money has to come from somewhere.  That could be from a larger share of the prize money which Mercedes has to negotiate from Liberty, a sponsor lured away from another team, or the salary of another team member who lies outside the budget cap.  Could Bottas be asked to take a pay cut, or to drive for free, because Lewis fancies even more money?  Could Williams fold because Merc have hoovered up potential sponsors in order to meet driver salary demands?

Essentially, it’s demanding a larger slice of a rapidly vanishing cake.  

No I totally get you.

I’ve thought for a long time f1 has become a bit silly. Lost touch with reality. Bloated!
It has pained me and some of my colleagues that the staff numbers have risen to what they currently are. But at the same time I’ve enjoyed the success we’ve enjoyed over the last 6 years with the larger staff numbers. 

When I joined Honda f1 back in 2006 I was staff number 450! I think there’s near 1000 here now! At Jordan’s there were 220 staff when I was there. That seems like a lifetime ago though!

Fretwired

markr76 said:

Fretwired said:

Is Bradley Lord still with you?

As far as I know. I don’t know him personally though. He tends to mix with the race team ones. They don’t speak to us plebs!

I know him as he went to boarding school with my son .. they shared a room together. He's a very bright guy. He went to Oxford and got a first in English and Modern Languages. He was head of the teams PR machine.

markr76

Although it is a worrying time, not just for us in f1, but everywhere. We are very lucky at Mercedes as they have always been very upfront with us and keep us in the loop of what’s going on. I can’t speak for all teams in that regard. 

As such I have to be very careful that I don’t give out any sensitive info when commenting on this site. I’ve learned to ignore the gossip Merry go round. As it’s killer in times like this. When Honda pulled out of f1 it was terrible. I was a nervous wreck! 

markr76

Fretwired said:

markr76 said:

Fretwired said:

Is Bradley Lord still with you?

As far as I know. I don’t know him personally though. He tends to mix with the race team ones. They don’t speak to us plebs!

I know him as he went to boarding school with my son .. they shared a room together. He's a very bright guy. He went to Oxford and got a first in English and Modern Languages. He was head of the teams PR machine.

He’s still on the staff page of our intranet system.  There’s so many people here though, I tend to keep to my little bubble of composites these days. 

We are lucky though at Mercedes. There are so many clever people here. That why I think even after a possible downsizing. The likes of us, Redbull will still be top of the pack. The cream always floats to the top as they say! 

Fretwired

markr76 said:

He’s still on the staff page of our intranet system.  There’s so many people here though, I tend to keep to my little bubble of composites these days. 

We are lucky though at Mercedes. There are so many clever people here. That why I think even after a possible downsizing. The likes of us, Redbull will still be top of the pack. The cream always floats to the top as they say! 

In my day it was the 'scum and the cream float to the top' ... :-)

Fretwired

markr76 said:

Although it is a worrying time, not just for us in f1, but everywhere. We are very lucky at Mercedes as they have always been very upfront with us and keep us in the loop of what’s going on. I can’t speak for all teams in that regard. 

As such I have to be very careful that I don’t give out any sensitive info when commenting on this site. I’ve learned to ignore the gossip Merry go round. As it’s killer in times like this. When Honda pulled out of f1 it was terrible. I was a nervous wreck! 

I bet there were Japanese executives committing harakiri with a sharp samurai sword as Brawn won the championship. And then Mercedes turned up ..

markr76

It’s funny though. Although I’ve enjoyed the success and I love working at Mercedes in f1 as it is now. My favourite time working in f1 was at Jordan gp. I joined there in 2000. The first car I really helped build from start to finish though was the ej11, the one with the shark on the front. 

We didn’t have success like I’ve since been involved with. 7 championships later. But there was a real camaraderie there that I’ve not witnessed before or since. Sure we get on really well where I work now. But that is just confined to my department of 24 guys and a few from other depts that are linked to ours. It’s so big now it’s diluted that feeling a little. 

markr76

Fretwired said:

markr76 said:

Although it is a worrying time, not just for us in f1, but everywhere. We are very lucky at Mercedes as they have always been very upfront with us and keep us in the loop of what’s going on. I can’t speak for all teams in that regard. 

As such I have to be very careful that I don’t give out any sensitive info when commenting on this site. I’ve learned to ignore the gossip Merry go round. As it’s killer in times like this. When Honda pulled out of f1 it was terrible. I was a nervous wreck! 

I bet there were Japanese executives committing harakiri with a sharp samurai sword as Brawn won the championship. And then Mercedes turned up ..

I bet! 

Some of the Japanese we worked with were funny. I worked with a guy called Towie Tanaka at Jordan and then at Honda. He was an aero guy. Brilliant at his job but crazy as hell. One staff bbq we had. He turned up in an inflatable sumo suit and kept trying to wrestle everyone! I miss him. He went back to Honda in Japan after Honda pulled out.
trouble was with the Japanese bosses at Honda f1 was they could never commit to an instant decision on anything. You get left behind in f1 like that. 

Plus they saw the world in black and white. Whereas f1 is very grey!! I remember being invited to a directors lunch with Ross Brawn. He was telling me that Honda couldn’t work out why their engine went from being one of the best to the worst one. He asked the engine guys why they hadn’t added any upgrades for ages. They responded because the rules say so. Ross said well not if you look for the loop holes in the rules!!

Fretwired

I take it back .. the Merc looks cool in black on the track.

Fretwired

Wow .. Racing Point third .. expect more complaints from the other teams .. Ferrari are struggling. Hamilton  on top. Sadly it looks like Mercedes are in a league of their own.