“I think it will be introduced in the next few years” – McLaren CEO Zak Brown has proposed a separate budget cap for the driver salaries from the middle of this decade.
McLaren boss Zak Brown is not very pleased with the budget cap put in place from this season. The 145m cap does not include the driver’s salaries and the three highest employees of a particular team. Brown wants the drivers to come into the budget cap as well so that teams can spend on machinery.
“I think all the team bosses supported putting in a driver salary cap. I think you have that in the majority of other sports around the world. Formula 1 needed to and is changing, its financial profile to make these racing teams sustainable.
“I thought that the drivers should have gone into the [budget] cap in the first place. I think there are two different ways to look at it. You can do what has now been proposed and have a $30m cap and decide how you want to spend that amongst your two drivers.
“Another area I would actually have liked to have seen was to have put the drivers into the initial salary cap, whatever that salary cap is I think you would raise it, and then give the team flexibility on how do you want to spend your money.”
Zak Brown suggests an alternative – a separate budget cap for driver salaries
Brown also has an alternative in place – to have a separate cap for driver salaries. This will allow teams to manage their finances better on that front. This will only be possible after all the current contracts of drivers end, though.
“I think it will be introduced in the next few years,” he added. “I think you do need to recognize that some drivers are already under a contract in the short-term that are over that budget.
