David Coulthard has spoken about the GPDA’s desire to meet with Max Mosley and discuss the recent fee increase for the super license needed to participate in the F1 World Championship.As reported earlier, the fee increase is substantial and while drivers make good money; the FIA seems to be over-the-top on their new price structure which, as David points out, can be as much as 1000% in some cases. Irrespective of how much you make; this rate increase is nonsensical and only contributes to the odd money-grab the FIA seems hell-bent on lately. David shared this in his column at ITV:
“I realise that F1 drivers are well-paid and our complaints may not elicit much sympathy from the public – but the fees have been increased by a massive amount this year, as much as 1000% in some cases,” he wrote in his ITV column.
“To take two examples, Robert Kubica will be paying around €90 000 and Fernando Alonso has to cough up over €200 000.
“Ultimately we would like to see the fees reduced, because we don’t believe any other professional sportspeople pay that sort of figure for a licence to compete.
“It just seems unfair, and the assumption that because you’re scoring a lot of points you must be earning a lot of money is baseless, since the FIA don’t know what is in the drivers’ contracts.
“In any case I don’t see why drivers should be penalised for success.
“We intend to meet with Max to discuss the issue, give our point of view and argue for a readjustment – because the price hike was just delivered as a fait accompli and wasn’t discussed.
“I think that’s an unreasonable approach, especially since the drivers contribute actively to safety improvements through the GPDA, which we fund from our own pockets and not through the FIA.”
