Formula 1 has always been synonymous with excellence, the jewel in the crown of motorsport. Quality at the highest levels is always achieved thanks to good financial availability which allows us to make use of proven professionals in the respective sectors. Formula 1 has for many years been an attractive and convenient showcase. When the budget cap came into force in 2021, the teams complained about the need to drastically reduce the number of personnel in order to be able to fall within the spending ceiling imposed by the regulation and, although to a lesser extent than expected, there was some downsizing. was.
Recently, however, some insiders have pointed out that the number of employees of most teams has returned to pre-budget cap values and, above all, that all teams are constantly looking for staff, with open positions even in strategically important roles .
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It is not a random phenomenon, but linked to an important change in approach in team management. In recent decades, an average employee of a Formula 1 team had received an average 10/20% higher salary than in the ordinary world of work.
Entering the ‘Circus’ has always represented an important goal, both for work experience and for the paycheck and cases of technicians who have lived all their professional experience in a team have not been rare. If you’re fine, there’s no reason to change.
This changed with the introduction of the budget cap. The teams had to make ends meet, starting by offering lower salaries to new hires, and even some benefits reserved for existing staff were adjusted or eliminated. There are those who have taken the trouble to do some calculations to compare them with those of 2019, and it has emerged that compared to the world of external work, teams today pay on average 10% less. This is a first reason that explains a hemorrhage of personnel, in a limited percentage, but with a constant trend and above all in contrast with the recent past.
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There is also another aspect that is greatly influencing personnel management, in this case the ‘race-team’, i.e. the working group that operates on the track. The number of trips has progressively grown, the 2024 calendar will force the staff who must be present on the track at all races to spend more than six months away from home.
A considerable sacrifice, for which there is no longer even the economic compensation that until a few years ago allowed one to grit their teeth. Today, especially for those who have started a family, there are many problems to face, and it is no coincidence that after the Covid period there has been a decrease in the average age in the paddock which has gone beyond the physiological generational change.
A young person under 30 is less subject to family ties and, with CVs that are still immature, the financial demands are not high. For a few seasons it may be an interesting proposition, but as soon as a bit of experience has been gained there are those who put themselves on the market to improve their economic treatment or those who also look outside the context of Formula 1 in search of more profitable contracts. For the teams it is a short blanket, if the structure of the organization requires the presence of almost a thousand employees (for the top teams) the budget limits impose a drop in salaries, and with them the risk of losing experienced staff.
Also for this reason the arrival of an eleventh team is not good news for the ten teams present in the paddock today. The Andretti team will be obliged to hire at least two hundred people with a CV that already boasts experience in Formula 1, and in some positions it will be able to guarantee certainly interesting salaries. All this at a time when Audi and Williams are also looking for a significant number of people, without considering the physiological turnover that spares no team.
Finally, there is the nightmare of gardening-leave, which for certain figures has reached a duration of a year or in some cases even 18/24 months. The notice of dismissal with ban on work was introduced as a sort of guarantee for those who see one of their employees leaving, in order not to bring ‘fresh’ knowledge gained within their former team to another team.
Initially this restriction was imposed only on key figures, but over time it was extended to many company levels. In a staff-starved Formula 1 there is also the paradox of hundreds of experienced people forced to spend long periods of inactivity at home, watching the Grand Prix sitting on the sofa waiting to change uniforms.
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