Formula 1: Jenson Button weighs in on whether drivers should be taking a salary cut

2020 F1 season

Button weighs in on whether drivers should be taking a salary cut

The 2020 season has seen several races postponed which is causing a financial strain to some teams

Martin Macdonald

Wednesday 1 April 2020 11:00

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Former F1 champion Jenson Button has admitted that it is “tricky” to ask drivers to take a salary cut as the sport struggles financially in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

Starting with the Australian Grand Prix, no less than eight races have been postponed or cancelled so far.

The lack of competition is starting to hit the wallets of F1 teams, particularly the smaller teams who rely on racing money to keep afloat.

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FC Barcelona are one of a few football teams whose players have taken a pay cut in order to pay the non-playing employees within the club. Questions have been raised as to why some F1 drivers are not doing the same.

Button believes there is no simple solution due to the disparity between the top earners and the drivers on a lower salary.

“It is a tricky one,” he told Sky Sports.

“You have six or seven drivers who are earning big, big, big money.

“The rest of the grid aren’t and obviously some drivers are bringing in money through sponsors and getting paid that way.

“But there are a few that are earning an extreme amount of money. It has grown even since I was racing in F1, that’s in four or five years. It is a lot of money.

“But it is always difficult.

“You’ve been offered this contract with this amount of money and to turn it down and say I’ll take less for the team. It should be happening but it is very different way of thinking for the drivers.

“And maybe it should be included in the budget cap. You can choose how much you pay the driver but then you are losing out on development.

“It is a tricky subject.”

The two highest earning drivers in the sport are currently Lewis Hamilton (€48m per season) and Sebastian Vettel (€42m per season).