As I sat (enjoying) watching Lewis Hamilton win the Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi at the weekend I couldn’t help but wonder about the money involved in this ‘sport’. It’s a great spectacle – the setting, the yachts, the teams, the crowds – you could almost smell the money.
Eddie Jordan made a comment which was that the teams with the most money get the better cars and the better drivers. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by this. The difference between win and lose can be a few seconds in an hour and a half race – money talks.
It is reckoned that Ferrari and McClaren spend around $400m each year on the team. An engine is reckoned to be around $5m and thats before you start to carry a team of engineers around with you. They do well to last a handful of races (the engines I think they mean). At least they manage about 4mpg! Steering wheels are £25,000 each. The Pirelli deal on the tyres means that the teams only have to pay just over £1m a year for the tyres. At least you get around 30 laps on a set. Hamilton is reputed to earn £70m over the next 5 years with McLaren.
You can understand why Toyota pulled out a few years ago. This is a serious money sport.
I do have concerns about the amount of money poured into sport – it sometimes seems to be out of kilter with what else is going on in the world. The good thing about motor sport is that we can see some of the technical advances finding their way into our everyday cars. The bad thing is that it creates non-celebrities like Tamara Eccelstone – Billion $$ Girl. TV that makes you cringe! And takes the shine off all of that carbon fibre?
