However not everybody pays the identical. Offers may be struck for the precise drivers. In multi-car groups, it isn’t unusual for less-talented wealthy drivers to fund the seats of faster, much less rich ones.
Russell – earmarked for the highest – says he paid £800,000 for his title-winning F2 season in 2018.
Besides, these numbers are out of attain for all however a tiny proportion of society.
Budgets have elevated considerably in actual phrases previously 30 years.
Again in 1994, a season of British System 3 – which then was the main worldwide championship – price about £250,000 in a high workforce. The equal in System 3000 – what has now develop into F2 – was £500,000.
Alter these numbers for inflation, and they’re the equal of £500,000 and £1.1m right this moment. So why have prices successfully elevated threefold?
The reply to that’s rooted in how the championships have developed. Inside 10 years, the price of an F3 season had virtually doubled to £500,000. That is the equal of about £1.1m now.
In 2005, F3000 grew to become GP2 and was taken over by then Renault F1 workforce boss Flavio Briatore and his enterprise associate Bruno Michel.
F3 and F3000 had competitors between chassis and engine firms. GP2 and GP3, and their successors F2 and F3, are one-make formulae; everybody has to make use of the identical chassis and engine.
The thought is to make sure equality of kit, the higher to check drivers. Michel negotiates a provide worth with F2 and F3’s chassis and engine companions, and says he calls for the very best supply.
“I am attempting to decrease as a lot as attainable the burden of the price of the automobiles on the groups,” he says.
However the circumstances of these championships have modified considerably.
British F3 was held solely within the UK. F3000 was European, and customarily held at its personal standalone occasions – very often at lesser-known tracks – solely often becoming a member of the invoice at a grand prix.
Now, each F3 and F2 are a part of the F1 package deal, and the variety of races concerned in a season has elevated considerably. Each additional race prices cash – even when it is on the identical weekend on the identical monitor – not least in crash injury.
Racing alongside F1 brings important advantages by way of publicity, but in addition a draw back in terms of price.
The championships have develop into worldwide, and whereas F2/F3 covers freight prices centrally, being on the F1 assist invoice means personnel must journey to cities internet hosting grands prix.
As the price of F1 has elevated, it has a knock-on impact for the junior classes. Flights and inns are dearer. And the price of labour has gone up, as a result of the junior classes are competing for personnel with the likes of System E and the World Endurance Championship. So the packages engineers and mechanics are supplied must be extra aggressive.
On high of that, the automobiles have been made extra just like these in F1, so are dearer to provide. And security requirements have additionally improved considerably, as they’ve in F1. However that additionally comes at a value.
Karun Chandhok – now a Sky F1 commentator – says he paid 1.7m euros for his F2 season in 2008. That is the equal of two.2m euros now.
So, give or take, which means F2 has tracked inflation since then.
Though the costs of kit and spares go up about 15% every time a brand new automobile design is launched, F2 and F3 CEO Michel says he considers the broader financial surroundings when choices are made about upgrading automobiles and insists: “We used to make a much bigger margin on the time of GP2 on the spare components than we do now.”
It is karting the place prices have actually exploded lately, insiders say.
