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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