Filed under: Motorsports, Earnings/Financials
FIA Superlicense gets exponential increase in price
Never mind all the adrenaline, the horsepower and the glory. The coolest part of being an F1 driver could very well be the Superlicense. That's the prerequisite certification that any F1 driver needs to get from the FIA before driving in Formula One. Now, however, the World Motorsport Council has decided to raise the fees, and not by a little, either.
Until now, the standard fee for a Superlicense was €1,690 for a newcomer – a sizeable chunk of money compared to the standard fee that you and I pay down at the DMV, but not entirely unreasonable in relation to all the money being spent in F1 altogether. On top of the base fee is an additional €447 for each championship point scored in the previous season by a returning driver. The new fee structure, however, has gone up exponentially: €10,000 base fee, plus €2,000 per championship point. That means that for Kimi Raikkonen to get recertified after having won the championship last year, he'll have to pay €230,000 (over $336k) – that's a staggering €199,255 more than last year. Gulp.
Sure, that's no big deal for a driver pulling in millions each year, and the teams will likely pick up the fee for their drivers. But it does seem to run counter to the cost-cutting measures that the FIA itself has been putting in place.
[Source: Autosport]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dondonel 5:39PM (1/23/2008)
What did you expect?
They'll spend less on technology and more on filling various deep pockets.
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tpp 5:49PM (1/23/2008)
This makes no sense at all.
Isn't the most important function of the superlicense to have a level of control who gets to pilot an F1 car from the safety perspective, i.e. FIA has the ability to make sure unsafe rookie pilots don't get or retain their licenses.
Wouldn't successful F1 pilots rather be safer pilots than rookie ones? Why is the FIA making it more difficult for them to renew the license? The whole thing sounds like yet another ponzi scheme by FIA and Formula One Group.
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Black Shark 6:31PM (1/23/2008)
Yeah, because crazy kids were just pouring in, teams paying them millions of dollars and trusting them to drive their multi-million dollar cars, now they will be stopped
Teams don't risk that kind of money on unsafe-rookies, this has simply no practical effect, just cashing in a bit more
Peter 5:56PM (1/23/2008)
Not that it matters very much to the story, but...
exponential != large
In other words, it's a big, large, huge, massive increase. But it is no way exponential.
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JPA914 6:12PM (1/23/2008)
Thanks for keeping bloggers on their toes. I'm glad I'm not the only one.
why not the LS2LS7? 6:03PM (1/23/2008)
This makes no sense. They're just taxing the drivers?
I guess they just got angry that the drivers make so much money from endorsements and they don't get a piece of it.
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Sam 6:14PM (1/23/2008)
so wait..i thought all that car hardware restrictions were to let the 'little guys' try to compete against the big bad super corporations and now that there charging even more for licences..does anyone feel a disconnect here?
Can we just say F1 is retarded and move on. I'm all for LeMons 24 hour race that Autoblog competed in last year. Now THAT is an authentic race car series.
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Person 6:30PM (1/23/2008)
This is just pathetic. Anybody who can qualify to get a super license would have been racing in many other series, gaining God knows how much money. This is just utterly pathetic. Please Bernie, just quit.
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pmiddle5 6:32PM (1/23/2008)
But the little guys generally score no championship points so whatevs. If they do score points then they are typically no longer little guys and start banking. I dont think this is going to hurt Super Aguri's drivers to much.
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Franz 6:51PM (1/23/2008)
Just another example of the nonsense they cook up at the FIA. How and why should it cost the more experienced drivers more to compete the following season? And yes, you could argue that the rookies don't make the kind of money to afford it yet, and I'd have to agree with that argument as well (just for argument's sake... some of them did quite well for themselves in other racing series before F1). It's just dumb the way they do it. If anything, it should be the same price for anyone, IMO. And on the other hand, they're saying they want to cut costs. I guess they're only interested in cutting costs for the teams, even though I'm sure the teams would have no trouble footing the bill for their star driver's super license. No matter which way I look at it, it seems dumb.
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Adam 7:04PM (1/23/2008)
I'd wager that at least in the past, every single team has paid for their drivers' licenses in full, every year. If not, the driver's agent pretty much sucks. The price going up as it has, they may work out a percentage to be paid by the drivers, but this increase isn't going to stop a single would-be driver from making it into F1.
This is just the FIA cashing in on their power, which is to be expected, oh, say, five or six times per year.
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Tom Winch 7:24PM (1/23/2008)
The paid drivers licensing fees would probably be paid by the teams. The drivers bringing money to secure their rides would probably have their fees paid by their sponsors. The fee being raised to $15,000 US (10K Euros) doesn't seem that outlandish to me. It's the additional fees for points scored the previous season that seem ridiculous. On the flip side of the coin, it cost me $200 to renew my SCCA membership and National Competition license and it cost $60 to renew my NASA National Competition license. So if Kimi or any other F1 drivers have problems coming up with the cash to renew their FIA Superlicense they can just come over to the U.S. and club race for a lot less.
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nardi 7:31PM (1/23/2008)
Well having spent the $100mil that the FIA got from Mclaren last season they need to be kept in the luxury they have become accustomed too.
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Harrison 9:34PM (1/23/2008)
Well... c'mon. Bernie's still trying to pay off those wheels that got stolen off his Mercedes-Benz CLS 3 years ago.
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Brendan 12:04AM (1/24/2008)
Invariably the drivers who score the most points are the drivers with the most fans (yeah yeah, I'm sure there's some correlation argument but don't tell me Tonio Liuzzi is bringing in tons of business), which generates business for the sport, which generates money for the sport, which gives the FIA the right to basically penalize them?
Yeah that was a long sentence, and sure, the costs are being deferred between teams and sponsors and not the drivers, but seriously, I think someone capable of winning the damn Formula 1 World Championship is worthy of a free ride on next season's Superlicense.
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ronnie 4:27AM (1/24/2008)
It should be reasonable if they are going to increase their price. There are some people will be effected by that. For me it doesn't really matter.
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Gooch 7:35AM (1/24/2008)
Poof! -- there go my plans to become F1's second black driver.
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James 10:56AM (1/24/2008)
Guys/Gals,
Remember the superlicense is not only required by the wonderful drivers with full sponsorships you see racing on Sunday, but also by testers and any new young hot shots that shop up at Minardi/Spyker/Force India throughout the course of the season.
Those guys may not have contracts which state the team pays for the license (they are paying for the seat in most cases), and while this may still be absorbed by their sponsor, it's still a nice chunk that may prevent more seat time than they had originally planned, meaning less time to impress team owners, and less of a chance to move up.
This won't be the straw that breaks their backs, but I am not sure this will be the last straw drawn by the FIA.
I don't get what the FIA is trying to do anymore. I follow WRC and they have made a MESS out of the series right when they had a real winner on their hands, and they seem determined to squander their chances with the F1 revival that they have been given.
It really (REALLY) pains me to say this, but I think NASCAR is doing a better job than the FIA now a days. They aren't perfect, but they don't seem to be shooting themselves in the foot nearly as much.
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gino 11:56AM (1/24/2008)
The ctione word here is Moseley, as in Max, the FIA's Formula 1 degenerate.
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Bruxell 12:40AM (1/25/2008)
That settles it, Mosely must GO!
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