Unpaid salaries: towards a pilots’ strike?

After a decision on cost reduction was postponed to a later date, a meeting on the subject is to take place on May 1, and a new crisis could be looming in the small world of Formula 1. This time, the discontent would come from the drivers whose payment delays are reportedly multiplying at the moment.

Indeed, according to Sport Bild, Steve Robertson, the manager of Kimi Räikkönen, and Federico Gastaldi, the director of the Lotus team, were seen discussing in Bahrain. The Finn has still not been fully paid for the 2013 season during which he drove for the Enstone team. According to the German weekly, the Finnish driver is not the only one in this situation. Romain Grosjean, Nico Hülkenberg, Adrian Sutil, and Kamui Kobayashi have not been paid for all of their performances.

That is why, through the GPDA, the drivers’ association, they allegedly signed a document threatening the teams with a strike if they continued to neglect their salaries. However, this document reportedly wasn’t signed by Räikkönen, as he is not part of the GPDA. Lewis Hamilton allegedly did not sign either.

When interviewed by Sport Bild, Nico Hülkenberg didn’t elaborate much on the details of the document in question but hinted that drivers are in a weak position compared to the teams: « The teams are aware of the situation. Drivers can be easily replaced. Even if it’s not perhaps at the same skill level, they take advantage of it. »

This situation would be the result of the overly high costs of the discipline. He concedes that if teams are having trouble paying their driver, it’s not necessarily by choice: « It’s not with a light heart. It’s just that there’s no money. The sport is too expensive. »

The most affected teams would therefore be those “mid-table” teams such as Sauber and Lotus.