The cost of obtaining a formula one ‘superlicense’ has skyrocketed because drivers should contribute to the safety measures designed to protect them, Max Mosley told reporters in London on Monday.
It emerged recently that the credential, mandatory for participants in official sessions at grands prix, would in 2008 cost a driver 10,000 euros plus 2,000 euros per point scored in the previous season.
In 2007 and earlier, superlicencess cost just 1,690 plus 447 euros per point, meaning that then reigning world champion Fernando Alonso credential cost the Spaniard just under 62,000 euros.
New world champion Kimi Raikkonen’s 2008 license, however, will cost him 230,000 euros.
“A lot of the people who have otherwise been meeting the bill said ‘Hang on a minute, these drivers are earning mega-bucks, we’re spending a fortune to ensure they’re safe’, so hence the increase,” Mosley, the FIA president, said.
He explained that he was unmoved when some drivers wrote to him protesting that they, and not their teams, personally pick up the bill for their license.
Mosley added: “If somebody said I could have a job, earn 20 million euros and pay 250,000 euros for the licence, I’d settle for that.”
