The Truth Behind Pay Drivers

Everyone agrees pay drivers suck. They are drivers who only make it to Formula One because of their financial backing, which destroys the integrity of the sport. However, why exactly do they exist the way they do? Well if you pay close attention, every pay driver exists on a middle to lower-tier team. Maldonado at Williams, Sirotkin at Sauber, etc. but why is this the case? Well it all comes down to the distribution and the true value of a driver. Here’s how F1 Prize Money is distributed:

Current Constructor’s standings in parentheses. Units in millions of dollars.

1^st (Red Bull): 64.85

2^nd: (Mercedes): 54.6

3^rd: (Ferrari): 44.4

4^th: (Lotus): 37.5

5^th: (McLaren): 34.1

6^th: (Force India): 30.7

7^th: (Sauber): 23.9

8^th: (Toro Rosso): 20.5

9^th: (Williams): 17.1

10^th: (Marussia): 13.6

11^th: (Caterham): 10

*17.5 goes to Ferrari, just because

So, consider the situation of Mercedes, say they have a driver with 11 million worth of backing and one with 6 who’s a better driver. If the better driver gains them just one position in the C.C. then t gains them 10.25 million, much more than the extra five million they would gain from the lesser driver who wouldn’t gain them that position. Hence the actual worth of the talent-based driver is 16.25 mil to Mercedes.   But put Williams in the same position, if they move up to 8^th form ninth, they only gain 3.4, which is 1.6 less than if they had just taken the pay driver. So the pay driver for Williams is much more beneficial. That means the issue is not with the teams, but with the distribution of money.

The even more unfortunate part is that now the lower level teams (excluding the Red-Bull funded Toro Rosso) are not reliable sources for good drivers, so the drivers they send up will be pay drivers (think Maldonado to Lotus from Williams). So the teams at the front will be more keen on taking drivers directly from their lower series (think Magnussen).