F1

[fog]

Talk of Hamilton having to take a pay cut to stay at McLaren so I dug out a list of salaries for F1 drivers and it makes for interesting reading.

Aside from Alonso getting twice what anyone else is, how did Kovalainen get a $4m contract?  And Di Resta is way under paid getting lees than Karthikeyan who is the worst driver I've seen in F1.  Never mind a salary he should be paying them to race.  

Reported F1 Salaries *
01. Fernando Alonso €30 million
02. Lewis Hamilton €16 million
= Jenson Button €16 million
04. Sebastian Vettel €10 million
= Mark Webber €10 million
= Felipe Massa €10 million
= Nico Rosberg €10 million
08. Michael Schumacher €8 million
09. Kimi Raikkonen €5 million
10. Heikki Kovalainen €4 million
11. Timo Glock €3 million
12. Kamui Kobayashi €1 million
= Romain Grosjean €1 million
14. Nico Hulkenberg €500,000
= Sergio Perez €500,000
= Vitaly Petrov €500,000
= Pedro de la Rosa €500,000
18. Jean-Eric Vergne €400,000
= Daniel Ricciardo €400,000
= Pastor Maldonado €400,000
21. Bruno Senna €250,000
= Nairan Karthikeyan €250,000
23. Paul di Resta €200,000
24. Charles Pic €150,000

Source: Business Book GP 2012
http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/7793193/-Alonso-tops-F1-money-list-

[T_M_C]

Very interesting reading.   

Having recently read the autobiography of Eddie Jordan i can appreciate all the negotiations, double dealings and back stabbings that goes into driver salaries.

Obviously the amount of money the teams have per season reflects how much money they can afford to pay their drivers.

Ferrari allegedly have £300,000,000 budget per season.  And seen in that light, Alonso's salary doesn't seem that much.

Wasn't there new regulations a while back to curb excessive spending ?

TMC

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Ferrari allegedly have £300,000,000 budget per season.  And seen in that light, Alonso's salary doesn't seem that much.

Wow, I'd love to see a breakdown of what they spend that on.

Wasn't there new regulations a while back to curb excessive spending ?

Kinda ironic isn't it.  Cap the amount they are allowed to spend on car development, but that just makes getting the very best drivers even more essential so they end up spending even more money on them. 

[TheKhakinator]

Canada was a tad boring, a tad exciting, then boring, then WHOA.

Also interesting that despite all the "DRS is gonna be ineffective here" talk, a good 80% maybe of the passes were under DRS? Really enjoyed the race, though.

Also why is Di Resta getting such little money?! And who is still paying Timo Glock...

[fog]

I watched a decent amount of Le Mans at the weekend and it was surprisingly action packed.

Anthony Davidson was incredibly lucky....if you can be lucky when breaking a couple of vertebrae 

Shame about the Nissan Delta Wing getting taken out by another car.  Seems there's a slight issue caused by the car being much wider at the back than the front.  When it's being overtaken and you're side by side with it, it looks like you're well clear of it only to clip it's back wheel.  That's what happened in the crash.

Also it's quite difficult to corner in because if you point the front wheels at the apex of a corner the back wheels will be off the track 

Le Mans 2012 Huge Airborne Crash Davidson and Perazzini (Full Speed)	powered by Aeva

[T_M_C]

Woa.   

Big crashes.

TMC

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Valencia this weekend then.  Great to drive around, boring as hell to watch.  And with no true straight, the DRS zone isn't going to help much so our only hope of a good race are with the degrading tyres again.

I'm glad to hear the Valencia GP might be scrapped due to lack of interest & consequently money.  As this is the European GP they should go back to moving it around every year.

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Well aside from the top two of Vettel & Hamilton that looks like a nicely mixed up grid.  7 different teams in the top 10 shows how closely matched the cars are.

Watching Webber, Alonso and Schumi battle through the pack might actually add some interest to a race in Valencia. 

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Well that was rather brilliant.  After the first few laps it looked like another boring Valencia race and then it all kicked off.  So many incidents.  Overtakes outside the DRS zone, tyre wear playing a big part again, crashes and even some good old mechanical failures that we haven't seen in a long while.

Some of the crashes were more deliberate than accidents too.  No idea what Verne was doing side swiping that Caterham or what Maldonado whs thinking when he took out Hamilton.

Brilliant from Alonso, Webber & Schumi.   Another poor race for Massa & Button. 

[T_M_C]

Yes i agree.

The first half of the race was the usual boring stuff, but the second half really got going.

All credit goes to Alonso, with a very emotional win.

Was great to see.

Looking forward to the British GP.

Bet it rains.   

TMC

[TheKhakinator]

Missed it, watched the torrent. Friends spoke of action so I was keen going in.

And yet so much of it was to my disappointment! Kimi looking timid (really do agree with Coulthard here), Grosjean pulling out, Maldonado taking away a hard earned place from Hamilton, Hamilton's pit stop screwup...

A great race, but hard for me to watch Was happy for Schumi though. I really want to see Webber earning some more podiums, he hasn't impressed me much this year. Never really challenging or truly fighting. And I want to see Kimi win again.

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Oh god with everything else that happened I forgot about yet another McLaren pitstop farce. If they hadn't made such a mess Lewis would have been well clear of Maldonado.   Let down by a broken jack they had designed to help make their crappy pitstops better lol

I really want to see Webber earning some more podiums, he hasn't impressed me much this year. Never really challenging or truly fighting. And I want to see Kimi win again.

I know what you mean about Webber and yet I look at the championship standings and he's 2nd.   

And I'm not entirely convinced by Kimi yet.  There just seems something missing since his return.

[TheKhakinator]

Oh god with everything else that happened I forgot about yet another McLaren pitstop farce. If they hadn't made such a mess Lewis would have been well clear of Maldonado.   Let down by a broken jack they had designed to help make their crappy pitstops better lol

Coulthard is all like "WOW, 2.9 second stop!" then it's like "OOOOOOH NO". Very amusing.

I really want to see Webber earning some more podiums, he hasn't impressed me much this year. Never really challenging or truly fighting. And I want to see Kimi win again.

I know what you mean about Webber and yet I look at the championship standings and he's 2nd.   

And I'm not entirely convinced by Kimi yet.  There just seems something missing since his return.

Yeah. Kimi seems... I don't know, I didn't follow it closely back in the day but he seems very... disappointed. Almost as disappointed as Glock probably is to be at whatever loser team he's at. And yeah, I did the same double take today with Webber when I looked at the standings. But it's the same with Alonso in some respects; both he and Webber have both actually been fairly consistent. Also, Kimi's outperforming Grosjean in the standings, despite Grosjean looking pretty hot the last two races.

All my love was lost for Maldonado this week too. Impressive agression (just as he was impressive when he won the race under all that pressure). But unfortunately it was directed against everyone I was going for (Kimi at the start, for example). And frankly I think it was the red mist that made him take out Hamilton. Hamilton's been really impressive this year, I think. None of the immaturity that plagued him last year.

Notice that HRT near the end of the race, driving clear off the track to avoid the cars lapping it? Or was it just me?

[fog]

Yeah. Kimi seems... I don't know, I didn't follow it closely back in the day but he seems very... disappointed. Almost as disappointed as Glock probably is to be at whatever loser team he's at. And yeah, I did the same double take today with Webber when I looked at the standings. But it's the same with Alonso in some respects; both he and Webber have both actually been fairly consistent. Also, Kimi's outperforming Grosjean in the standings, despite Grosjean looking pretty hot the last two races.

Kimi was always known for being laid back and staying cool under pressure, but he almost seems too laid back at times and needs a fire up the arse.

Grosjean has looked the better driver IMO although barley completing a lap in the first two races hasn't helped his championship position.

Notice that HRT near the end of the race, driving clear off the track to avoid the cars lapping it? Or was it just me?

lol yeah I saw that too, although if it was Karthikayen it was probably an accident. 

[fog]

I just thought I'd post this for comedic value.

Despite it's well documented financial strife, Greece says it wants a F1 grand prix and believes a race could help turn the country's fortunes around.

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/7979550/Greece-wants-F1-grand-prix

With half the countries currently hosting F1 races losing a stack of money and desperate to get out of their contracts, Greece think it will "turn the country's fortunes around".  I wonder how they got into so much debt?