Higher driver fees, now FIA wants more from teams

The FIA World Council will consider a proposal to make teams pay for various "services and equipment at every F1 race" and intends to add the cost to the entry fee.

The costs include the marshalling and positioning System (F1MS), which provides race control with accurate real time information about each car's position on the track and enables light signals to be sent to the cars from race control. The annual cost per team is reckoned to be $160,000. In addition there are fees for "light flags", light panels around the track which will supplement flag signals which give race control an accurate record of what signals are shown and when. This will cost each team $190,000. The accident data recorders on the cars are being charged at $20,000 per year, with the costs of a pitlane and garage communication network to replace paper messages and the need for runners is being charged at $110,000 per team and weather forecasting services at $75,000, in addition to $110,000 for the pitwall intercom systems.

All this will hike the entry fee from $466,000 to $1.1m, more than double the cost last year. Grandprix.com