F1 drivers stunned after maximum fines quadrupled to €1 million،
Formula 1 drivers expressed their shock and astonishment on Thursday after the sport’s governing body quadrupled the amount stewards can fine them to a maximum of one million euros (1.06 million bucks).
The change to the International Sporting Code (ISC) was approved at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Geneva.
The previous ceiling of 250,000 euros has not been reviewed or modified for at least 12 years “and does not reflect the current needs of motorsport”, specifies the press release.
Mercedes’ George Russell, head of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA), said the new maximum “seems obscene”.
“In my first year in Formula 1 (at Williams), I had a five-figure salary and I actually lost over six figures paying my coach, paying my flights, paying an assistant,” he said. he told reporters at the United States Grand Prix. Price.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc said he had no idea what might merit a $1 million penalty and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, whose team has one of the smallest budgets, said how ridiculous it seemed.
“Charles can give his watch but I would disappear never to be found again,” added the Dane.
Leclerc had an exclusive Richard Mille watch, valued at more than $2 million, stolen from his wrist in Italy last year.
Mercedes’ seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who was fined $50,000 in Qatar two weekends ago for driving through a live track in an incident the FIA is looking into, said that it was the first time he had heard of it.
“If they have to impose a fine of one million, let’s make sure that 100% of that sum goes to a cause,” added the Briton, whose latest contract will bring him 50 million pounds sterling (60.71 million dollars) per year.
“There’s a lot of money in this whole industry and we need to do a lot more to create better accessibility, better diversity, more opportunities for people who wouldn’t normally have the chance to get into a sport like this one.
“So many causes around the world. So, yeah. This is the only way they can get this million from me.”
Max Verstappen, now a three-time world champion, was fined €50,000 in 2021 for touching the rear wing of Hamilton’s car after qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
“If touching a rear wing is 50 km, then I would like to know what a windmill is,” said the Red Bull driver.
Formula 1 has seen some of the heaviest fines of any sport, with McLaren fined $100 million and stripped of constructor points during a 2007 spying controversy involving information about Ferrari.
The British team ultimately paid half that amount after the fine was reduced by the loss of revenue from withdrawing their points.
Red Bull was fined $7 million last year for exceeding the sport’s 2021 cost cap.
“We just want transparency and understanding. I think the fines are already getting out of hand,” Russell said.
“It’s as if these numbers came out of nowhere.”
